King of Fakers: saving them all
by davido747
Summary: In an alternate timeline, there was one person who pursued the same ideals as Shirou Emiya long before. This is the story of the hero who will be named as the King of Faker and his journey to save them all.
1. Prologue

**Hello people of fanfiction, as you can see I am a new writer. This is an idea that I have been thinking about for quite some time. Although the protagonist is going to be an OC you can take this story as a what would've happened Shirou Emiya had lived in an older era? But even so, there will be differences between the King of the Fakers and EMIYA, otherwise writing this story would make no sense. My intention is to write this character's story and then use him in crossovers with the same Fate franchise or others. It would be confusing if I started a story with a character that's only in my mind and nobody knows where it came from. Since he's going to be a heroic spirit, this will be his legend.**

**Without further ado, let this story begin.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

**(Edit)**

**All spelling corrections and mistranslation were done by Psycho (with a little Rereading and minor addition by dandragonmc).**

* * *

AD 45, Brittania, a small village on fire. Between the debris and the corpses, a boy is found walking, seemingly unaware of the situation around him. He seemed to be approximately 6 years old, with light auburn short hair and ochre eyes that seemed golden. He continued to advance, his eyes devoid of life, driven only by the basic instinct of survival.

Screams can be heard in the background, some asking for help, others agonizing and some that seemed completely inhumane. The boy covered his ears in a desperate attempt to ignore the screams and went on, until his body gave way to pain and exhaustion. He collapsed facing the sky. He saw a bright full moon that was standing out over the smoke. The boy extended his arm upwards with the last of his energy in an attempt to grab it, hopeful, but nothing.

About to close his eyes, before his arm fell to rest on the ground, he was suddenly grabbed by an unknown hand. The owner of the hand was a grown man with gray black hair and equally black eyes. After seeing that the child was still alive, he burst into tears and began to repeat "you're alive" and began to thank him with a smile on his face. From another point of view it might seem that the adult had been saved instead of the child. The boy finally ran out of energy and passed out.

* * *

**Boy's perspective.**

Little by little I regained consciousness, by the time I opened my eyes I realized that I was no longer in that hell. I was lying on a single bed at ground level inside of what appeared to be a cabin made of wood. At that moment I hear a voice beside me "Wow you finally woke up." I turn my head slightly so I can see the owner of the voice. I could recognize him as the man I saw before I lost consciousness, kneeling beside me. Noticing that he had my attention, he spoke to me, "My name is Marcus Edevane. You could say that I'm the one who saved you from the fire, what's your name boy?"

After a few moments I managed to answer, "Finn". For some reason it was harder than I thought to answer that simple question.

"Finn huh, that's a good name, and your last name?"

I tried to remember but "I don't remember."

"Is that so? then, do you remember anything about your family, someone who didn't live in that village so they can take care of you?"

Again I could remember absolutely nothing, neither my parents, my family or any part of my life before the fire other than my name. So I responded "Nothing"

He was silent for a few seconds. "Well, I guess after going through that, it's no wonder you don't remember anything. So, since there's no other choice, you want to stay here in this little cabin and be cared for by an old stranger you just met?".

Without much thought I nodded, after all I couldn't find anything wrong with living with the person who saved me from that hell.

"Well, I guess from now on you'll live here and be my son. Oh, before I forget, I have to tell you, I'm a Magus."

I was confused on what he called himself , but before I could say anything my stomach started to rumble.

"I'll bring you something to eat. You must be hungry after several days of being unconscious."

I tried to get up, but I felt a sudden burst of pain all over my body, and I fell back into bed. Marcus comes to me and helps me by leaning me against the wall behind me.

"Your body is not completely healed yet, so don't overexert yourself."

He stands up and moves to a corner of the cabin where there looks to be a kitchen bench, made of wood like the rest of this place. Above the bench was something wrapped in cloth and what looked like a cup made of clay. He brought me both, the glass was full of water, and inside the cloth were a few pieces of meat that were already cooked.

"I prepare them in advance for when you wake up. Eat it and get some strength."

I listened to him and started eating. A silence hovered over us, so to break it I asked him "What do you mean by you're a Magus?".

"I knew you'd ask. The explanation of the term "Magus" is quite complex, at the moment you can think of me as someone who can perform magic. I actually had to use some healing magic to heal you. Although you weren't that hurt on the outside, your lungs were pretty damaged from the smoke and a lot of your muscles were torn."

I wanted to ask more about it but, as he said it was a long explanation, so to change the subject I asked him about the incident I was involved in. "Were there any more people who survived the fire?"

"..." Another bout of silences before he reponses "No, you were the only one I found alive. Actually, the fire wasn't caused naturally. The fire was not caused by something "mundane", your village was attacked by Magical Beasts, the fire itself was probably started during the attack."

After hearing that, a question arose in my mind: "What is a "Magical Beasts?".

"You can think of it as a supernatural creature, like an animal with the ability to use magic, like the ones you hear about in stories."

He then told me how he was related to the fire. "I was there buying supplies, when the beasts showed up. Although I was able to get rid of most of the beasts, the fire had already started, and the one who looked like the leader of the pack escaped."

By this point he had lost his composure and was clenching his fists. I could see that he felt guilty for not being able to stop the tragedy. Marcus noticed the face he was making and began to regain his composure.

To start the conversation this time I asked him about me. "Then why did you save me?".

"I really don't know. It may have been because of remorse, guilt or a spur of the moment decision. But there is nothing wrong with helping people."

Those last words were etched into my soul. I spent some time thinking about it as I finished eating. Once finished I resumed the conversation with Marcus: "Do you live here alone, or does anyone else in your family live here?"

He thought about it for a few moments before he answered me: "I guess it's okay for me to talk to you about me, after all, from now on I'll be looking after you. To answer your question, I live alone although I have relationships with a small town near here. Besides, I'm the only one left in the Edevane family.

"Oh, I'm sorry." It was the only thing I could answer to that revelation.

"Don't apologize, you couldn't have known. Anyway, the members of my family were Magus, they always taught us that "to be a Magus is to walk with death", especially considering what we were doing. We were hunters of Magical Beast, with the "purpose" of protecting ordinary people from the threat they pose. Because of this, the beasts started trying to get rid of us too, until in the end it was just me."

After this he turned to look at something hanging on the wall. I noticed that there were a pair of sheathed swords. "Those swords you see there, their names are Redeemer and Retriever. They are swords that my family created for the sole purpose of exterminating Magical Beasts. I used them to destroy the ones that attacked your village. I recommend you don't get too close to them, although their scabbards perform a seal function, they're cursed"

It took me a while to understand all of the information. While I was thinking, my eyes began to close. Marcus then spoke to me again.

"That's how my story goes. You should rest, I think with another day or two you should be all right."

While I listened to him, I lay down on bed and fell asleep.

* * *

**TimeSkip**

It's been several years since Marcus adopted me. Marcus didn't have a job, so we lived off the hunt. We would hunt and eat animals. He hunted and got money selling fur and leather in the little town near our cabin. As Marcus was a man of considerable age, he decided to teach me how to hunt and cook so I could live on my own in case anything happened to him. As part of this training I learned to use the bow, which I was quite good at.

I also asked him to teach me how to use magic (which I later learned was properly called magecraft). At first he did not agree, arguing that it was very dangerous, but in the end he agreed on the pretext of being able to defend myself in case I am attacked by a magical beast. After explaining to me the basics of the magecraft, Magus Families, mana, od and magical energy, Marcus told me that he found magical circuits in my body while healing me, about 50, an average amount for the current Magus. Activating them was a painful process, it took awhile for me to get used to the active circuits.

Even so, apart from the basics, I could learn nothing more because of my origin and singular element, both were "sword". Marcus theorized that I descended from a blacksmith or something like that. In the end I only had structural grasp, reinforcement, projection and alteration. Basic spells and, for most Magus, unhelpful, but since it was the little I had been, I dedicated myself to perfecting them.

Marcus showed me quite a useful way to use reinforcement, reinforcing your own body in order to achieve superhuman strength, endurance and speed. But it had to be performed with care, because an object could only hold so much magical energy, pouring too much could cause the targeted object to explode if it was reinforced beyond its limits.

Also because of my affinity, I excelled in the analysis and projection of swords. In fact, the projection was supposed to create empty objects that disappeared over time, but somehow I managed to make projections of swords that preserved history and materials and only disappeared if they were broken.

Finally, I trained my skills with a sword, after all it was one of the few things I was good at.

It was not an easy life, but it was a good life. But the only reason I decided to become strong was to pursue my dream. A dream I've begun to admire ever since I heard Marcus' words "There is nothing wrong with helping people". From that moment on I decided to dedicate my life to helping and saving people. And for that I need power, to save them all and to prevent the hell in which "I was born" from happening again.

Until now I have devoted myself to helping my father and the inhabitants of the nearby village. It always made me happy to see people's smiles when I helped them. Maybe one day I'll get that smile Marcus had when he saved me.

* * *

I woke up suddenly with a gasp. I still regularly dreamed of that hell, although after several years I got used to it. I looked at the bed next to mine and I realized that my father was not there. I decided to go out to look for him.

I found him sitting on the edge of a hill near our home, watching the full moon. He had grown older; his hair was now completely white and no longer had the same vitality as when he adopted me. The moon looked just like the one I saw during the fire. I sat next to him and when he didn't notice, I said: "If you're going to sleep, do it in the cabin or you'll catch a cold."

He reacted this time and replied: "I guess I spaced out remembering some things."

"Remembering things, like what?". I questioned him curiously.

After thinking about it, he sighed and answered: "I guess it's about time I told you about the true nature of the Edevane family. As you know the Edevane family was an ancient family of Magus, as such their goal was to reach the Root. What made them different from the rest was that they decided to investigate the species of Magical Beast that were manifesting on this plane. They believed that by investigating these beings belonging to the other side of the world they could find some clue to achieve their goal. For this, protecting mundane people was just a facade so that other families would not try to interfere in their research.

He paused briefly and continued. "I was trained as a child, to become a killer for the sole purpose of obtaining specimens for the heads of the family. But the Edevanes were already in decline, when I was born. The investigation did not bear much fruit, and being the target of the beasts only accelerated the process. I was on a mission when the main house was besieged and destroyed. When I found out, all I thought was that I was finally free; I could have a normal life, away from the battlefield. And that's how I ended up here."

I remained silent; there was a lot of information to take in. I finally came to a conclusion. "Well, I don't care what you were in the past. You'll always be the person who saved me."

Hearing that, Marcus' resigned face began to smile. We stayed in comfortable silence there until Marcus broke it.

"But enough about me. Let's talk about you, Finn. What do you want to devote your life to? I doubt you'd want to remain a mere hunter forever with all the effort you put into training. Plus I see you smile every time you help someone in town."

I already knew the answer to that question so I answered instantly: "I want to dedicate my life to helping and saving people, I want to be a hero so that hell can't happen again. I want to pursue my dream of saving all the people I can." As I responded, I rose and stretched my fist to the moon.

Marcus was surprised, not only by the answer but by the sheer determination in my eyes and voice. Then he smiled and replied: "That is a beautiful dream to pursue; I am glad that you have not decided to become a magical beast hunter with an absurd purpose. I don't think I need to tell you, but you have my approval."

I always know I would have to tell Marcus eventually but i'm glad that his response is the way it is. As I began to fall asleep again, I got up to go to sleep but my father interrupted me.

"Before you go I want to give you this," he told me by taking out what looked like a red blanket. "This cloak was enchanted by some ancient Magus of my family with protections against phantasmal beasts and weak magecraft. It is the only legacy I have left of the Edevans that is not cursed like Redeemer and Retriever. I am sure it will be useful to you."

The coat has two pieces, a top in the form of a pair of sleeves for the arms joined together in the back by a piece of metal and the front by white threads tied together. The lower part was configured to hang from the hip protecting the sides of the legs.

I got excited, but then I got a little depressed when I saw that it wasn't my size.

"Don't worry; it's also enchanted to fit you when you put it on. I also want to tell you that you can use my combat armor, it has the same enchantments as the cloak."

This made me excited, I had structurally analyzed that armor many times and it still fascinated me. The armor was formed by a chestplate made of high quality steel altered with magic to be flexible, magical beast leather pants with steel plates to protect important areas like knees, and finally a pair of boots made of the same leather with soles made of steel. The set was made to have good protection against the supernatural without sacrificing mobility. These objects would be very helpful for when I begin to pursue my dream.

My father's voice snapped me out of my euphoric state. "I'll just tell you one thing. Don't make the same mistakes as me and my family, don't become a killer with vague targets."

"Its ok father, I will become a hero and save everyone. I will make sure everyone is happy."

"That makes me really happy son, I guess I can rest peacefully now."

At that moment I decided to go to sleep without realizing the true meaning of those words. That was the last time I could talk to my father.

I will always remember that night, the night where I reaffirmed my motivation to follow my ideals, and the night I lost the one person I considered family .

* * *

**AN:**

**And here ends this prologue. What do you think? I apologize if my English is not the best since it is not my mother tongue.**

**Anyway, here we can already see the first differences between Finn and Shirou. Finn is properly trained as Magus, as well as being from an older era, where magecraft is not in decline, his magical reserves are much larger. He doesn't have Avalon though. **

**But the most important difference is that he didn't borrow his ideals. He decided to dedicate his life to them to achieve happiness and fill the void in his heart, not to continue his father's dream.**

**Finally, do not wait for the next chapter soon, although I will try not to make the wait too long. With this, I say goodbye for now.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello people, we meet again. I managed to get this chapter out much faster than I expected. But with the Easter holidays obout to end, I don't think I can get the next one out anytime soon.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this first chapter of this history.**

**MINOR SPOILERS:**

**As I said in the previous chapter, the action will begin, that is, there will be a fight. I recommend that you put in the background the EMIYA theme of your preference. I put on the original of the visual novel as I wrote it and my hands moved by themselves.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

**(Edit) Beta Readers: Psycho and (minor help) dandragon mc**

* * *

It's been over a year since my father died, it took me a while to get over it.

Now, I'm a teenager, but I could be considered an adult with no problem. I still live in our cabin, although it's a little lonely without him. I also continue to live off of hunting, even if I don't get much money, it is a simple "job" for me and helps me refine my skills with my bow and sword. As for my dream, so far I have continued to help in the village as I can. Residents practically know me as the errand boy.

Ever since I was alone, I made the decision to travel to continue helping more people. But before I head off I need to save what little money I gather, I'll need to have at least one place to sleep wherever I go.

I woke up early in the morning, like any other day, and I started doing my daily exercise routine to keep my body in shape. Marcus always told me that training my swordsmanship or magecraft would be of no use if my body can't resist it. After so many years of realizing it I got a body not very muscular but well toned.

When I finished I set out to eat breakfast. While looking over my food supplies, mostly preserved leftovers from the animals I hunted, I see that I am running low .

"I guess I'll have to go to the woods today," I said to myself.

When I finished, seeing that it was still early, I started practicing my magecraft. Most Magus conducts their research in a workshop, an isolated and heavily protected place so that no one can see the results of their research. But, as I live alone and relatively isolated, I never saw the need to create one. Nor did I consider myself a proper Magus. For me, magecraft is just a tool to help me achieve my dream.

Currently I have two projects in mind. The first involves the projection, or rather the version of this spell that I accidentaly created. I call it "tracing". I choose to call it that to match the aria I use to activate my magic circuits. I start the process to perform any spell, "Trace on." This consisted of seven steps:

_Judging the concept of creation_

_Hypothesizing the basic structure_

_Duplicating the composition material_

_Imitating the skill of its making_

_Sympathizing with the experience of its growth_

_Reproducing the accumulated years_

_Excelling every manufacturing process_

Thanks to this, the created copy will be as close to the original as possible. As I already mastered this process with non magic weapons, I decided to try to trace something much more complex. That something was my father's cursed twin swords, Redeemer and Retriever.

The moment I used the structural analysis on them I was bombarded with a lot of information. These are a pair of twin swords about thirty centimetres long, made of silver and with a simple design. These were only differentiated by their guards. Redeemer's consisted of a couple of tips that curved upwards, while Retriever's curved slightly sideways.

Both had a huge anti-monster property, plus each blade had a different special property. Redeemer was more effective against evil alignment entities, like demons, while Retriever had the ability to absorb magical energy causing it to cut through any magical defense. In short, the best weapons possible to face magical beasts.

But in return, they were cursed. They needed to be fed, usually with the vital energy of their victims. Otherwise, they would begin to consume their wielder. This is what made Marcus weaken over time and finally die that night. Unfortunately, the scabbards could only slow down the process.

With this in mind, I decided that if I were forced to use them, it would be a traced pair that I could disperse before they tried to consume me.

The second project involved alteration. I thought that since I was good at the bow and swords, why not combine both? Then I began to alter projected swords to make them more aerodynamic and to try to shoot them with a bow.

The result was a projectile much more powerful than normal arrows, but the bow did not withstand the force needed to fire it and broke even with reinforcement. So, I had to postpone this idea until I got a bow strong enough.

I sat on my bed and closed my eyes, beginning to visualize Redeemer's blueprint in my mind. Once I had the whole image in my mind, I chanted my aria, "Trace on", and I started the process, going through the seven steps slowly. Some of my circuits lit up, lighting up all over my body, and magical energy began to condense in my hand, beginning to take shape. It hurt a little, but, since I have memories, pain is practically a part of my existence.

Once finished, I inspected the copy in my hand and swung it a bit. Weight and appearance were almost equal to the original, but I felt that quality was still not the best I could aspire to. It was an improvement over other attempts, and I was aware that something traced would always be degraded. But I was still unsatisfied.

I dissipated it and continued to practice until I thought it was time to go into town. I put on my clothes, some plain clothes made of furs and some cloth, and on top of that I put on the red cloak my father gave me. Although I didn't wear the armor very often because it would draw too much attention. You can call it sentimentality but I almost always wear the cloak.

I took a small bag where I kept my modest savings and left the cabin, saying goodbye to my father's makeshift grave, and head in the direction of the village.

* * *

Although I call it a town, it was actually quite large. When I get there I head to the market area, hoping I'll find some food at an affordable price for myself.

During my trek I heard a loud scream and turned back to look in the direction I came from. There I saw an older woman crouch down tired, trying to pick up something that fell and putting it in boxes.

I head over and bend down to pick them up. I say, "Let me help you, ma'am."

She turned to see me and answered me:"Oh, it's you Finn. I see you're still helping anyone who needs it."

"It's something I like to do, so there's no problem" I answered and started to pick up what had fallen, which were blades.

This isn't as surprising as it should be, after all she was Anwen, the wife of the local blacksmith. I suppose her husband was busy and sent her on some sort of errand.

Once the blades were returned to her boxes, I offered to carry them for her seeing that they were quite heavy.

Along the way I heard something in the conversations around that caught my eye. I stopped for a moment and subtly reinforced my ears to hear more clearly.

"Have you heard the rumors going around recently?"

"No. What are they about?"

"They say lately that some towns and cities have been attacked by some kind of strange monster"

"Really! Is that not an exaggeration of some wolves attacking livestock?"

"According to rumors, they attack at night and the victims are usually people, not animals. Although they said that nobody has been found. It may just be bullshit, but people are starting to get really worried.."

From there the conversation changed the subject. But I didn't like the idea of strange beasts going around. It may be some kind of magical beast like the ones that attacked the village I lived in, that caused a catastrophe.

It seems as though I got lost in thought and stopped. Anwen noticed and turned to look at me, "What's wrong, Finn, why are you stop-?" but when she saw me she stopped suddenly. "Whoa, why are you making such an angry expression!?"

Oh, it seems that my emotions were reflected on my face. "Sorry I was just lost in thought for a second there." I gave her a vague answer and started to increase my pace.

When we arrived at the blacksmith, it was completely empty. "What am I going to do with that husband of mine, he probably went to lunch with his colleagues and left the blacksmith unattended."

After leaving the boxes I told her "I'm going to the market to see if I can find something to eat, if you need help with anything don't hesitate to ask me."

I set out to leave when Anwen interrupted me. "Wait, since you've helped me, why don't you stay and I'll fix you something to eat?"

"No need, I helped you because I wanted to. I'm already happy with that"

"You always say that when you help me. You should ask for something in exchange for your help, it makes me think people are taking advantage of you."

"But I help people because I like it. Do I need any reason to help anyone?"

After a few moments of watching me she breathed a sigh and replied, "You're too good a person. Come on, accept my gratitude, even just this once."

Then it was me who sighed and said, "Okay, if you ask me like that, I guess I have no choice."

"I assure you, you won't regret it. You're going to taste a proper meal for the first time in your life."

* * *

When I finished eating I went to the forest to try to catch something. Anwen was right, that was the best meal I've ever had. Makes what Marcus and I ate look like crap.

Anyone would think that entering a forest without any equipment is stupid, but to me, projecting a bow and arrows does not involve any effort, and so I save that money. That's why I always go alone.

It didn't go as well as I expected. I was only able to hunt a couple of rabbits and some other small things. It was very strange, the forest was quiet. Anyway, in order not to waste the trip, I stopped at a small spring I knew inside the forest to bathe. It's been a while since I've done that, and it helped me relax.

Seeing the sun start to set, I decided to call it a day and go home for dinner. When I left the forest and saw the town I was alarmed. Fire. The houses near the entrance were up in flames.

"No. Not again". Those were the words that came out of my mouth.

There was a chance it was just a normal fire, but in my mind I saw that hell again. The rumors I had heard only worsened my state of mind.

I make my decision quickly. Anyone would call me suicidal, but I didn't care. I will not let anyone die in front of me again. This time I will save them.

"Not if I can help it!"

I reinforced myself to the limit and ran into town at a speed that would make me look like a blur to normal eyes.

When I entered the village and searched the houses, my fears were confirmed. There were human corpses. The bodies were cut and had wounds that the fire didn't cause.

I hear inhuman roars and strong blows outside. I ran out in the direction they came from and ran until I got to a building I recognized as Anwen's husband's smithy.

There, banging on the door I see it. It was a creature whose appearance and presence shouted magical beast. It looked like a wolf, but a lot bigger, on all fours, it was just a little lower than me, and it also looked like it could stand on two legs. The strength of his blows and the size of his claws made him fearsome. There was no doubt it was a monster.

Although the blacksmith was one of the few buildings made of stone and the door was made of steel I doubt it would hold out much longer. In fact, it was quite strange that It had not yielded already.

I had to do something, and time was not on my side. It still hasn't noticed my presence, but I can't get close to that thing carelessly. I hardly doubt I can face that thing head on.

I need to take the initiative, with an attack that, even if it doesn't kill it, weakens it. The best option would be to use the bow, but I doubt a mundane arrow can cause any damage to it.

Then one of the projects I was working on came to mind. If an arrow won't work, then I just needed a much more powerful projectil. A sword. If I hit an eye or neck, it could cause considerable damage.

With no more time to waste, I projected my bow, a simple one made of wood, into my left hand and reinforced it. Then a simple, short blade appeared in my right hand and twisted, taking a more aerodynamic shape. I stretched out my left arm with the bow forward and pointed the "arrow" on the String, so that it was crossed out to the left of the bow.

I pulled the bowstring until the bow was at its limit and I began to fill the sword with magical energy . The beast was on its back, so I had to get his attention. I just yelled, "Hey, I'm your opponent!".

Unexpectedly it worked and the beast started to turn. At that moment I released the bowstring. The "arrow" was shot with an explosion of magical energy and the bow shattered.

By the time the beast realized it was too late. The twisted sword fortunately embedded itself in it's right eye, causing it to scream in pain and try to pull it out. It only managed to break the part that stuck out and the part that sank in its head remained. Even so it was not a fatal wound, it seems that it did not penetrate much into the brain.

The monster faced me and opened its mouth revealing his sharp fangs. I thought it was just gonna give out a roar, but I felt an accumulation of magical energy in his mouth. I quickly rolled to one side, avoiding the path where its head was pointing. That saved me from being incinerated. Out of its mouth came a bluish flare that burned the floor where I was a few moments ago.

"Heh, so this is how you started the fires," I whispered to myself.

There was no longer any doubt. This magical beast matched Marcus' description of the beast that escaped him. The scars badly healed by its body were proof of this.

I had no more time to think. The beast leapt and lunged at me. With my reinforced legs I managed to jump far enough back not to be caught. It landed where I had been a few seconds ago, hitting the ground whith its claws and creating a small crater.

I took advantage of the little time I gained to trace a sword in my hands. It was simple, but it had the best quality of the ones I saw at the blacksmith's. He rushed back to me, this time from the front. I had no choice but to confront him.

I could barely keep up. I had to just dodge and deflect. The beast was too strong to parry without my sword breaking, and even if I could trace another, I would be helpless for a few moments, something I couldn't afford. If it wasn't for destroying one of its eyes, I doubt I could keep up with it.

I deflected the next incoming attack, a descending thrust with his right arm. It claws stuck to the ground, giving me an opening. Using all my strength I swung my sword toward its exposed extremity. The sword broke when it made contact, disintegrating specks of magical energy. I could only cause a scratch on its skin. I seem to have underestimated the resistance of his skin.

I had no more time to be surprised. The beast struck back with its left arm, aiming to my head. If that attack lands there is no doubt that I will die.

I saw it coming, but, having distracted myself I can no longer avoid it. Nor do I have enough time to trace a sword and deflect the attack. Without more options, I raised my right arm and reinforced it to the maximum. Even if I lose it, at least I hope it stops the attack long enough so it doesn't hit me in the head and be fatal.

The blow came, and the next moment I found myself going through the wall of a house. I was stunned by the blow, but the wounds from my landing weren't very sharp. I had to blink to get rid of the black dots that started to appear in my vision.

What caught my attention was that I still had my right arm attached to my body. Then I saw the cloak my father gave me. It was torn, but it served its purpose. It protected me from attack as it came from a magical beast.

"Even when you're dead you're still protecting me," I thought to myself. Not wanting to waste this second chance, I ignored the pain and nausea, and rose up, stumbling a bit on the rubble.

I had to think of an alternative strategy. All I could think of was to trace Redeemer and Retriever. Although I still couldn't project them with the highest quality, they're the only thing I know that can beat that monster.

I decided to bet it all on this last resort and left the house I crashed into. Luckily the beast forgot about me and continued to knock on the blacksmith's door.

"Trace on!"

I stretched my arms sideways, shouted my aria and started the process as fast as I could. My body lit up with my circuits working at full capacity. The magical energy began to condense in my two hands taking shape. It was the first time I projected them both together.

The beast realized I was there and turned with an expression of surprise. Its astonishment lasted only a short time. Then it opened it jaws again, preparing to throw that magic fire at me again. Retriever could easily cut it, but I was running out of time. Although the swords were already in my hands, they still did not have enough consistency.

At that critical moment, my mouth moved by itself and uttered words I had never heard before: "_I am the bone of my Sword_".

It sounded like some kind of aria. If it weren't for the situation I was in, I would have paid more attention to them. In a way, it caused the quality and consistency of my projections to increase dramatically.

The fire was already approaching, but the projections were finished. As a side effect of the tracing, the experience of my father and the other wielders of these swords began to flow to me.

"Hah!"

I moved my left hand on a downward slash. Retriever cut the fire as if it were smoke and scattered it around me.

I took advantage of my opponent's little moment of surprise and threw myself at him with Redeemer already prepared to cut him in half. The beast reacted in time and dodged to the side. But it still received a cut. It wasn't very deep, but the flesh around it already began to be consumed by the curse.

After a few moments of staring at each other, its face full of fury, while mine had an emotionless expression full of steel, we both leapt toward each other. This would be the last exchange. Either I died, along with the rest of the people in the village, or it died.

This time the fight was much more equal, I could block and parry its attacks this time. Not only was it receiving considerable damage with every attack I landed, but its claws were corroded by every attack that I parried from it.

But still, I don't think my body can keep up much longer fighting at this level.

The beast's rage, provoked by the immense pain it must be feeling, reached its peak. Then it prepared a desperate attack with its right arm. It would not have been difficult for me to dodge such a careless attack, but that would just prolong the fight. I was already reaching my limit, so I had to take a risk.

I deliberately left an opening in my throat. Because of its present state of mind, it didn't even think about it and aimed its claw there. If that thrust connected it would be the end for me. But before it hurled its arm at me, I was already moving my right arm for a vertical cut in front of me.

The feint was a success. Before it could land its attack, I cut its arm off at the elbow with Redeemer. There was hardly any resistance, and its stump began to be consumed. Its reaction to the sudden burst of pain left its chest bare. Taking advantage of the opening, I threw a thrust with Retriever aimed at the beast's heart. It landed safely and the sword sank into its chest. But it didn't died instantly, and tried one last desesperate attack with its remaining claw.

"Haaaaah!"

I desperately started pouring magical energy into the Retriever. I inadvertently activated one of it's functions. The magical energy poured into the sword exceeded its limit, and the magical energy literally exploded from Retriever's tip, creating what looked like an energy beam.

The creature's torso exploded into fragments of unrecognizable flesh, which began to be consumed by the curse of the sword, causing its death once and for all.

The fight finally ended, and I emerged victorious.

I fell on my back. Once the adrenaline went, all the pain started coming back. My magic circuits were on fire. I dissipated Redeemer and Retriever before the curse affects me.

I looked up at the sky, already dark. "I... I did it..." I said to myself, and gradually lost consciousness.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a rather peculiar landscape. I found myself on barren hill. The sun was setting, causing it to have an orange color. What was strange was the objects here. Swords, many of them, stretched out as far as the eye could see, sttabed into the ground. Looking further, I realized that they were all swords I knew, I could even distinguish Redeemer and Retriever.

Faced with this situation, I could do nothing but wonder what this world was, and is it related to that strange aria? But in the midst of my reflection I noticed something that caught my attention.

At the top of the hill was a sword that I had never seen before. At first glance it looked like a standard two handed sword, with a length of ninety centimetres and a golden guard in the form of a slightly curved cross upwards. Even if it had nothing unusual to stand out, seeing it gave me a certain feeling of warmth.

But before I could get a better look at it, my consciousness faded again.

* * *

This time I woke up in what seemed like reality. I was lying on a single bed inside a small room. My body was full of bandages. I have the feeling that this was a déjà vu. At least this time I kept my memories.

Before I could reflect further the door of the room opened, entering an older man. I recognized him as Fedric, the village leader.

"Wow, it looks like you're finally waking up," he told me when he saw me. At this point the sensation of déjà vu was very strong.

"How do you feel, hero?" That surprised me.

"Huh?"

"Well, when we found you, you were unconscious next to the remnants of the beast. It wouldn't be weird to assume that you were the one who defeated it."

"You're right about that. I guess you have some questions."

"That is true, but with the sudden increases in magical energy I felt, I can get a sense of how you did it"

For the second time I was surprised. "How-?" but before I could finish he replied.

"I may not be a proper Magus, but I know the basics. You can rest assured, I will not reveal your secrets. Although, seeing the affection everyone has for you, I don't think anything bad will happen."

I let out a sigh of relief, I had withheld without realizing it and relaxed.

"I guess you'll have questions too. Since it's isn't lunchtime, you can ask me anything you want while we wait. We're holding a banquet to celebrate your victory, by the way."

"How many people survived?"

He stared at me and sighed. "I should have guessed you'd ask about the others first. The casualties were minimal, I managed to evacuate most of them inside the blacksmith's. To tell you the truth, ever since I heard the rumors, I set the place up to keep the citizens safe."

"So that's why it was able to withstand the beast's attacks."

"Yes, I reinforced the door as best I could, but if it weren't for you, things would have gotten ugly."

I was relieved that I could have saved most of them, but I still felt bad that I couldn't save them all.

Fedric must have noticed and told me, "What's with the long face? We might not be able to avoid victims, but you don't have to blame yourself so much. It was a coincidence that you were in the woods when the attack started, and thank goodness you got there before it knocked down the blacksmith's door."

Those words made me feel better. I managed to save them, although not everyone, that was a fact. A step closer to my dream. Next time I'll be sure to save them all. A smile came up in my face and did not go unnoticed.

"That's much better. The local hero can't be depressed."

"Don't call me that, you'll embarrass me."

"But now people here call you that"

"Ahem." I coughed a little to disguise my blushing face and continued the previous conversation. "So, how long was I out."

"Just tonight. it's surprising that you woke you up so soon. I don't know healing magecraft, so we treated you with bandages and some medicinal herbs. If you know any way to heal yourself, this is a good time to do them."

"Unfortunately, I'm not a proper Magus either, so that's out of my league. You could say that the only thing I'm good at is swords."

"Too bad. I guess you'll have to spend some time here until you recover. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about the reward we all agreed on for you." Then he took a sack out of his pocket and gave it to me. When I opened it I was shocked. It was full of gold coins, many.

"Two hundred coins to be exact." I couldn't do anything other than swallow loudly.

"This is too much, practically most of the people's funds. I can't accept so much for something I did because I wanted to."

"Nonsense. You've done so much for us. You've always been helping, and if it wasn't for you, we might not be here right now. Moreover, it was a unanimous decision by all. I will not accept no for an answer."

"But wouldn't this help with the repairs?" It was my last desperate attempt.

"I'm sure if we all work together we'll manage. Accept it as a thank you for what you've done. Unless you want another kind of reward."

I ran out of arguments, so I resigned myself to accepting it. At least I would not have financial problems for long. But that last sentence interested me. I could solve the one inconvenience I had in my "investigation" of magecraft.

"Tell me, could you help me make the strongest possible bow?"

* * *

After a week I had fully recovered. I enjoyed the banquet, both the food Anwen prepared, and seeing everyone's smiles. That made me very happy and hardened my resolve.

We gave a proper burial for the victims and the repairs were almost complete, a lot faster than expected.

With the help of the village blacksmiths and Fedric we were able to forge a proper bow to fire swords. This was deducted from my reward, but it barely cost 10 gold coins.

The body and riser was made of the best steel we could acquire, we used my chest armor for reference. For the string, we use hairs from the tail of the magical beast. At the moment I could make it work by applying alteration to apply the "flexibility" property, but I would have to find some Magus that could permanently enchant it.

The result was a black bow with silver tones, almost as big as me, 1.70 meters. I added a handle for comfort, along with a protection in front of it to prevent my hand from being too exposed while shooting. It took a lot of strength to draw the string, but with reinforcement it wasn't a problem. Thanks to this, not only could I shoot swords, but they could travel at incredible speeds.

I told the blacksmiths that it was a failure and that they should keep it. It would be easier to trace it when I needed it rather than to have to carry it with me.

Today, I was at the exit of the village with all the inhabitants gathered in front of me to say goodbye. Since I don't have any more financial problems and with rumors spreading about more magical beasts I decided to start my journey to save people.

I was wearing my armor and the red cloak Marcus gave me. The right sleeve was still damaged from the fight, if I were to try and repair it I could risk losing the enchantments. In the end I decided it would be better to make the sleeve into a headband that I wore. It would protect a vital point and still be with me.

I carried a bag on my back with my few belongings. I left Redeemer and Retriever in Fedric's care. They would serve as a last resort to defend the people.

"Take good care of yourself, Finn. Be sure to visit us when you can" Anwen was the last to say goodbye.

"I can't promise anything, but I will try. Take care of yourselves too and thank you for taking care of me all this time."

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're always the one helping everyone." It was Fedric who replied. Everyone smiled and laughed.

And with that last good memory I began my journey, to save them all.

* * *

**And that's all for now. What do you think of the first battle scene? I hope you'll give me your opinion since it's the first time I've written one. The final appearance of King of Fakers, as you may have already deduced, will be similar to that of Miyu Shirou when using Archer's card. Our protagonist also obtained a retro version of the black Bow and we can see the first steps towards the Unlimited Blade Works. Finally, for the mysterious sword, the most observant will have noticed what it looks like, but it is not what you are thinking. All I can say is that it will be ****King of Fakers'**** exclusive Noble Phantasm**

** In the previous chapter there were not many revisions. I would like if you had any opinions, doubts, reviews, or any suggestions, to tell me so that I could improve the quality of the story and my writing. As a bonus I leave you the datasheet of Redeemer and Retriever.**

**Noble Phantasm(typically mystic codes at this point): Redeemer and Retriever**

**Wielder: Marcus Edevane, King of Fakers (projection)**

**Type: Anti-unit**

**Rank: C**

**Description: a pair of cursed twin swords, created by the Edevane family as the ultimate weapons to combat phantasmal species. For this they have an A+ rank property anti-monster. Each blade has a special property, Redeemer is effective against creatures of evil alignment and Retriever has the ability to absorb magical energy .**

**With this I say goodbye for now. Until we meet again!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hey peole, we meet again. I managed to get this out before university exams start. From what I can see from the reviews, there are people who are liking this story. That made me very happy, and it motivates me to write. I hope that this chapter will also be to your liking. Finally, I again recommend that you put an EMIYA theme in the background during the fight. Without further ado, let the chapter begin.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

* * *

It has been a couple of months since I started my journey. I was now climbing a green hill. According to the map I got in one of the villages where I stopped to help its inhabitants, my destination was on the other side of this hill. My appearance hasn't changed much and, as for my outfit, the only difference is that I'm wearing a white cape that covers my armor. At the beginning of the journey I was assaulted by some groups of bandits who upon seeing the armor, thought I was a nobleman or a rich man. Although it wasn't very hard for me to incapacitate them, I was still a nuisance and I felt bad leaving people unconscious in the middle of nowhere. By hiding the armor, I now look like a simple traveler and was no longer a target for the assailants.

I finally got to the highest point and I could see what was waiting for me on the other side. In front of me was a larger town that I have seen so far, it could practically be considered a small city. After taking one more look at the map there was no longer any doubt. This town in the middle of the mountains was where the rumors of attacks by strange beasts came from.

Seeing as it was already dark, I decided to find a place to spend the night and start investigating tomorrow. It didn't take long to find an inn in the town centre, but as far as I could see from the short tour to this, the situation was not very good. Even if it was almost night, for such a big place the streets were almost empty, and the few faces I saw had dark and resigned looks. There was definitely something going on here, something pretty dark.

After dinner I went to the room that I had paid for and set out to wait to see if one of the alleged attacks that the rumors told would happen tonight. Meanwhile, to pass the time I lay down in bed and started thinking about the two magecraft projects I was working on recently. Ever since I accidentally caused that explosion with Retriever, I was struck by the concept behind it, overloading something with prana and then letting it pop out in the form of an explosion. I thought if I could replicate that in my body I could get a brief impulse of speed and strength when necessary. The result was not as good as I expected. It is still in the experimental phase, but although the impulse is quite good, I still can't use it fast enough as I would like and consumes quite prana from my reserves. In the end I decided to reserve this skill, which I named as prana burst, as a trump card for critical situations.

The second project was more a coincidence than anything else. While practicing the Trace, I accidentally traced a sword in the middle of the air. I was surprised that it was suspended, and it wasn't until I gave it a mental order that it fell to the ground. It seemed rather absurd, but that gave me a pretty practical idea. By injecting prana through the hilt of a sword while in the air, as I do when I shoot it with my bow, it can be thrown forward without even lifting a finger and at considerable speed. Even if this way doesn't have the reach and precision of the bow, it allows me to shoot several swords at a time and keep the ones I am wielding. I still can't throw many at once, but it's a good resource to keep in mind.

The problem is that in a room not too big like this I can't practice these skills without causing material damage, so in the end I just practiced the Trace to increase the speed at which I perform it.

A few hours passed, and almost asleep, I began to hear loud noises that apparently came from the floor below. When I was already dressed in my combat suit, I rushed out of my room to see what was going on. When I looked at the entrance of the inn, I found a rather strange scene. The woman who was running the inn was clinging to the bar and pulling on her legs was a strange being, for lack of other words to describe it. At first glance it looked like a standard size wolf, but its hair was a sickly green color and its eyes were totally white. Plus his body had some lumps that looked infected. It was also strange that he was pulling on the woman without trying to hurt or kill her, as a predator would normally do. It was more like he wanted to take her with him.

"Trace on!" Without further ado, I leapt upon the creature as I traced Redeemer in my right hand and slashed the beast's neck in a single swing. The lady gave a shout of surprise as the animal's inert body collapsed on the ground. There was no resistance, so I could assume that either it was a 'mundane' animal without any special characteristics, or affected by Redeemer's anti-monster property.

Hearing more screams and noises outside I realized that other people were also being attacked. I had to do something, but first I had to make sure the people at the inn were not attacked again.

"Close the door and lock it with some piece of furniture. Don't go out or open it until I get back." I told the innkeeper as I walked to the door. She nodded slowly, still affected by the experience.

Once I got out, I reinforced my legs and jumped onto the roof of a building. From a higher point of view I could get a broader view of the panorama. In order to see further and in the little light of night I had to reinforce my eyes. So, a few blocks from where I was standing, I saw one of those things come out of a house dragging someone else with it. Immediately in my hands Redeemer was replaced by my black bow and a normal sword. I sttabed the sword at the rope and began to pull it as it twisted to look more like an arrow. I fired aiming to the head, hoping the impact would at least get him to release the person he was abducting. To my surprise, the "arrow" pierced the head cleanly, causing an instant death. They were more fragile than I expected.

Without more time for observations, I started jumping from rooftop to rooftop, shooting at all the creatures I could find.

After a while, the beasts began to run away towards the mountains. I stayed for a while watching them as they disappeared into the darkness. As much as I tried, I couldn't make any sense of the situation. What the hell are those things and why are they kidnapping living people? It was clear that they were not normal animals, but I don't think it was some kind of magical beast either. And why did they suddenly withdraw? Too many unanswered questions. I will have to investigate this much more thoroughly if I want to solve this problem.

For the moment I decided to leave it for tomorrow and go back to the inn to sleep. When I arrived at the inn I knocked on the door and shouted "It's me, Finn, you can open the door without any danger, the attack is over!"

Then I heard noises, I guess they were caused by the furniture blocking the door when it was pushed away, and it opened. Upon entering I met the innkeeper and a few people, who were currently staying at the inn, gathered at the entrance.

"Are you sure it's over?" the lady asked me.

"I was able to take care of some, but most escaped into the mountains. I don't know when they'll be back, but at least tonight you can rest assured."

By saying that, everyone here relaxed and all the tension in the environment was reduced. Then they all approached me and bombarded me with questions and thanks.

"Thank you so much for saving me from that monster."

"Are you a nobleman who came to save us?"

"How did you do that thing about making the sword come out of the air?"

Feeling overwhelmed, I raised my voice and tried to answer everyone more or less at once. "I am just a traveler who did what anyone would done in my place. As for the sword, I took it out of the sleeve of my coat. But I can assure you that while I am here I will take care of protecting you." With this the questions ceased and it seems that everyone felt safer. I was alarmed when they almost discovered my magic. Although I didn't know what would happen if they found out, Marcus always told me not to show it in public.

"Well, for now it's better we all go to sleep, tonight's been pretty intense for everyone." I started walking to my room but was interrupted by the innkeeper.

"Wait, what do we do with that?" He told me by pointing to the corpse of the beast I killed at first.

"How did I miss that?" I wondered in my mind. Before I could kneel to observe it in more detail, I was attacked by a very unpleasant smell. The body was decomposing. It was very rare, it seemed that the animal had been dead much longer than the few hours since I cut it. Another mystery to the list.

"For now it will be better to leave it out. In the state in which it is, I do not think it is very healthy to have it around. Tomorrow morning I'll dispose of the bodies."

Having said that, we wrapped the body in a blanket and threw it out the door. After that, we finally went to rest. Tomorrow would be quite a long day.

* * *

The next day, with the help of more people from the village, we gathered the bodies in a pile outside the village and set them on fire. There was already the problem of the attacks, so I couldn't let people get sick from being exposed to rotting corpses. That would only make the situation worse.

As I watched as the fire consumed them I noticed a man approaching me. He wore clothes that made him stand out from the rest. I turned to face him and he spoke to me. "Excuse me, are you the man named Finn, the one who was shooting a bow at beasts last night?"

My eyes opened from surprise. I didn't expect the information to travel so fast in this town. It took me a little while to pull myself together, but I finally came back to the neutral expression I always put on and I answered. "Yes, that would be me. Is there anything you need from me?"

"My lord wishes to speak with you. Right now he is waiting for you in the central building of the village. If you don't mind, I can lead you there right now."

I wanted to ask the inhabitants for more details about the attacks, but talking to the one I assumed was in charge of this site can also help me in my research. Without a second thought, I nodded and followed the man. Soon after I was in a quite luxurious room, sitting across the table with a rather older looking man. This one started the conversation.

"Thank you for coming. My name is Alfred Denson, I am the person in charge of this town. I will come straight to the point, I called you here to make a request. But before that." He paused, rose from his chair and bowed in front of me. "I thank you on behalf of all the villagers for saving the people who were attacked last night." His gratitude was totally genuine, it seems that this man really cares about the people he's in charge of. After that he raised his head to look me in the eye and spoke again.

"I would like to ask you to stay here to protect us from those monsters. I assure you you will be properly rewarded."

I didn't expect him to want to reward me without even having solved the situation. I then gave him my counter-offer. "That won't be necessary, I had already decided to protect you all. You don't have to reward me for something I decided to do of my own free will."

"Are you sure you don't want anything in exchange for your services? I wouldn't be inconvenienced."

"I don't need any reason to help someone who needs it."

After looking at us for a few moments he gave in and sat down. "If that's your decision I won't discuss it. That's all I wanted to talk about, is there anything you want to discuss with me before you leave?" This is what I wanted to get to.

"If I'm honest, I don't think I can protect you forever." Hearing that Alfred's face changed to one of concern. But before he could say anything I went on. "So, I need to solve the problem by the root. You must have realized by now that the behavior of these creatures is too strange. They do not seek people to feed themselves, otherwise they wouldn't leave them alive. I need all the information you can give me if I want to find the reason behind this abnormal behavior, so could you tell me about the attacks so far?"

"With pleasure. The attacks began approximately three months ago and always in intervals of four to five days. They have never caused much destruction, and they don't usually take many people, around ten."

I couldn't agree on that. For me, losing ten people is more than I can afford. However, for me it is only acceptable to have no casualties. After all, my goal is to save them all.

"You happen to know where they take people?"

"Unfortunately no. The only thing I know is that they're headed for the mountains of the East. That's all I can tell you, sorry if it's not very helpful."

"Although I still can't come to a conclusion with this, it's still helpful. I'd like to check some things out for myself, but I'll have to wait for the next assault. I guess it's time for me to go, thanks for the information."

"Thanks to you again for helping us, this will make the gloomy atmosphere on the streets a little better."

Having said that, I went to eat at the inn.

* * *

Unexpectedly, the next two nights there was also an attack. It was not very difficult to deal with them, but it did bring down the morale of the people to see that they were now continually besieged. Still, I was able to take some advantage of it. I was able to account for two facts. The first was that the beasts only had in mind kidnapping people, that is to say that although I stood between them and their target, they ignored me completely. They didn't even try to defend themselves.

The second fact was that I was able to discover the true nature of these beings. Instead of shooting at parts that would cause instant death, I aimed at less vital areas such as limbs. The result of this test was that the beasts were never affected by the pain and continued to try to fulfill their mission. This along with my observations of the bodies led me to a single conclusion. These things were nothing more than reanimated corpses of animals, presumably with some kind of magecraft.

I was beginning to get the full picture of the situation. A Magus was behind this and was using those things as his familiars. What I didn't understand was, why did he need living people? That's something I'll have to find out by paying a visit to the culprit.

For that I made a simple plan. Tonight I would have to let one of those things take someone. Then I would follow it to its master's hiding place. I know it's immoral and I'd be putting a life at risk, but I need to get this over with once and for all. The people in this town have suffered for too long.

At the same time as always the beasts came to town, but there was something strange. They were barely half as many as they normally were. I guess after hunting them during the last few attacks, I narrowed down their numbers. I quickly dispatched everyone but one, hardened my heart and made it appear that I was missing the last one.

After a while I heard someone shouting. "Help, it's taking my daughter!"

"I will bring her back!" I replied as I apologised mentally. I immediately reinforced my legs and began to pursue them.

Fortunately, with an extra weight, the beast's speed slowed and I was able to follow him easily. We surrounded one of the mountains around the village and went into the forest. I had to reinforce my eyes in order to see better in the dark.

Finally I could see in the background the entrance of a cave. Gotcha, that's its master's hideout. With the location of the culprit already discovered there was no more need to leave the animal alive. I just shot a sword with my bow, piercing his head.

I knelt in front of the girl still in panic and tried to calm her down. "Quiet, it's all over, there's nothing to fear anymore" She nodded slowly.

I got up and started looking at the cave. "Can you wait for me here until I'm done?"

"Yes. What are you going to do in there, sir?" she replied timidly.

"Well..., let's say the culprit of this whole mess is in there, so I'm gonna "talk" to him to stop what he's doing."I thought since I got her involved in this whole mess, the least I could do was let her know what was going on here. Luckily she didn't ask any more questions.

With nothing more to say, I entered the cave. Its interior was a long corridor, and it was lit with some torches. There was no doubt that someone is hiding in here. In the middle of the road I saw something at the bottom that was moving. As I got closer I saw that they were two quite bizarre creatures. I wouldn't know how to describe it exactly. They were the same size as the things that attacked the town, but their appearance was very different. They seemed the result of combining various parts of different bodies, animals and humans. That disgusted me. Were the kidnapped people to create these things? What kind of sick person would I find here?

Upon realizing my presence, they swooped at me, screaming in a way that looked like they were actually screaming in pain. "Trace on!" I immediately projected Redeemer and Retriever into my hands. They were quite clumsy and not very well coordinated as they jumped one after the other instead of doing it at the same time. The first tried to bite me with his wolf head. It was very slow so I just took my head off its path, as I put Redeemer's blade pointing upwards in front of me. His own impulse did the work and the thing was cut in half cleanly, falling lifeless behind me.

The second tried to blow me with what looked like a bear's claw. Again it was careless and easy to see coming. I deflected it with Retriever, leaving its chest unprotected. I reinforced my leg and kicked it, being in the middle of the air it could not do anything. The thing hit its back against the wall, momentarily stunned. Before it recovered, I threw Redemeer at its head. The sword pierced its forehead to put an end to its horrible existence.

That was easy, too. Normally a Magus workshop would be much better defended. Without further ado, I let Redeemer and Retriever fade into prana particles and kept moving down the aisle until I got to what looked like a room.

What I saw there would leave anyone traumatized. On one corner was a pile of quartered corpses, human and animal. Next door was a table of bloody wood, full of all kinds of utensils, I asume to work with the bodies. I can't imagine what horrors have happened here. If it wasn't for the first memories I kept were from a similar hell, I'd be throwing up right now. A normal person would have been horrified and walked out of here screaming, to me, this only made me angry.

There was no one here, at least alive, but I saw another entrance on the opposite side of the room. When I crossed it I found another room much larger than the previous one. At the bottom of this I could see what could only be described as a pile of flesh woven together with barely form. Next to that was a man with his back to me. He had white hair and was wearing an elegant black suit that looked expensive.

"It seems you've finally arrived, I've been waiting for you." After telling me that he turned and I could see his face. He looked just like an ordinary old man, but it struck me that his eyes were red. He also gave off an imposing aura and smelled a lot of blood. This guy gave me a bad feeling.

"Welcome to my humble place of work, I wish I could offer you better hospitality but I'm afraid in this place I don't have the necessities."

"Are you the one who has done all this?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"Straight to the point eh, yes, I was the one who did it. Is there a problem with that?" The last thing he said in a mocking tone. I was struggling not to throw swords at him.

"My master, Lord Ortenrosse, asked me to create the most powerful chimera possible for him. He also asked me to spread suffering and despair as I did so. Humans were nothing more than the resources to carry out my task. As for what you saw in the corridor, that was nothing more than disposable prototypes to give me an idea of what the end product would look like."

"Yes. I have come here to put an end to this nonsense once and for all. If you withdraw now and get out of here where you don't cause any trouble, you might avoid going wrong." Even though I knew this guy wouldn't back down, I had to try. If he refuses, I'll have reason to get rid of him. I don't like to have to kill a person, but this asshole is beyond any salvation.

Suddenly, the man laughed. "Hahahaha. You're a pretty funny, aren´t you?. I was the one who lured you here to end your annoying existence! Be glad that your body will be used for a greater purpose."

"Trace on." Having confirmed it, I had no choice but to finish him. On top of me four swords were materialized pointing at him and were fired instantly with an explosion of prana. The four of them pierced the man's body in different parts, and he fell back inert. That was quick, he didn't even try to defend himself.

But before I could check his condition, I saw a slight movement in his right hand. That was the only warning I had that something was wrong. I traced as fast as I could Redeemer and retriver. I barely managed to stop the incoming attack and was thrown a few meters like a doll. I fell backwards and rolled back to slow the momentum. I quickly got up and saw the man standing, drawing the swords of his body. His wounds closed at the time and his fingernails were now quite long claws. Definitely, this guy wasn't human.

"That was a good attempt. It's the first time I'm forced to use my power, let's see if you can entertain me." Having said that, he swooped back at me with his incredible speed. I reinforced my whole body and my senses so I could keep up.

The exchange began more or less equal. Although I was vastly ovepowered in strength and speed, his attacks were easy to see and without any strategy behind them. I didn't have much trouble avoiding them or deflecting them, but their reflexes were also unnatural, so he also avoided any of my attacks. We were in a stalemate, and he had the upper hand. The slightest mistake would be fatal to me, and I can say that his resistance must also be superior to mine.

I left a deliberate opening on the left side of my chest. A blow there would be fatal, but I had to take drastic measures if I wanted to get out of the stalemate. He fell straight into the feint without a second thought, throwing a thrust at me with his right hand in the form of a spearhead. Looks like this guy wasn't lying when he said it was the first time he really fought. Without needing to look at his attack, I deflected it with Retriever and swung Redeemer in a vertical cut pointing at his neck. His absurd reflexes went back into action, and he bent backwards, narrowly avoiding it. Still, I was able to make a small cut, that was a progress. The wound did not close instantly as before, but closed at a much slower pace. At least now I know he's vulnerable to the properties of these swords, if I could manage to strike a blow at a vital point I could finish him.

"Damn slippery ape, I'm going to put an end to this now!" Looks like my last hit pissed him off. The smile he had during the fight was now a frown. He threw himself at me again, this time even faster, and attempted a cross attack with both arms. I had no choice but to parry both claws with my swords, getting caught in a struggle. His immense strength was slowly pushing me back, even reinforcing my arms to the fullest. At this rate, I won't last long before they break.

"What!"This time it was his turn to be surprised. As I looked at his hands, I realized that the curse of the swords began to consume them. His distraction gave me the opening I needed.

"Haaah!" I overloaded both blades with prana and let it out at once provoking a simultaneous prana burst. He flew backwards and fell to the ground, rolling a few meters. I paused briefly to recover. That last one consumed a considerable part of my prana reserves.

As expected, the being did not delay in getting up and stood staring at his hands. His claws were completely destroyed and would take time to regenerate due to the curse. Now that he had lost his main weapon, I was the one who had the advantage.

"Hum, those tulle swords are troublesome. I guess this is a good time to try them out for the first time." After he said that, he put his hands in his suit and pulled out a pair of swords with a look I'd never seen before. They looked like short sabres, both had a symbol I don't know about at the base of the hilt, the one on the right hand was white, while the one on the left hand was black with a red hexagon pattern.

I used the structural grasp on them to see what I'd be facing right now. Their names were Kanshou and Bakuya, a pair of "married" swords forged in distant lands of the East, whose forging process involved a human sacrifice. Their unique special features were an anti-monster property, not as exaggerated as Redeemer and Retriever, and their ability to attract each other. Apart from that, they were only very well made swords. The question is, how did he acquire weapons of such distant origin?

"Looks like they got your attention too, huh. They are a gift given to me by my master, I never thought I would have to use them against a mere human. You can die happy, knowing that you will be exterminated by works of art."

The fight resumed. His skill with swords was equally poor, but he kept overwhelming me with his physical superiority. Besides, by not entering into direct contact with my swords, I could no longer weaken him by just stopping and deflecting his attacks.

After crossing swords for a few moments, Redeemer and Retriever began to crack. The situation was very bad. If they were the original weapons they might have been on an equal footing, but as they were degraded copies, they had no chance against swords of such superior quality.

I leapt back as far as I could and I threw both blades at him. With a simple swing of Kanshou and Bakuya he broke both swords, but that was enough to gain the time he needed to retrace Redeemer and Retriever. I took advantage of the brief pause to analyze the situation. If this continues like this there is no doubt that I will lose. I need something powerful enough to kill him with one blow, and it can't be avoided. What came to my mind was to use my bow. The most effective projectile against him at my disposal would be Redeemer, not only for the anti-monster property, but also because the alignment of this being is clearly evil. If I overload it with prana and reinforce it with that aria, it should work.

But again, if he dodges it I will be lost. Therefore, I have to create a situation where that is not possible. When I saw your weapons again, I got the clue I needed. I am assuming that he did not know its emblematic feature as I did not try to use it against me even once. If not, I will be screwed.

With the plan already made in my mind, I prepare for confrontation. We kept crossing swords until I saw that mine were cracking again. At that moment I began to execute the plan. I left another opening, this time on my right shoulder. He attacked there with a straight stab with Kanshou. I caught his blade between the peaks that formed Redeemer's guard and I pushed his arm up, sacrificing my sword in the process. At the same time I attacked his left leg with a downward swing of Retriever, forcing him to stop with Bakuya. Though again my sword shattered I achieved my goal. His posture was completely open with each arm stretched to one side. I reinforced my leg to the fullest and kicked it into his exposed chest. The instant my boot made contact, I released all the prana from the booster in the form of prana burst.

With this I gained enough strength to push it back a considerable distance. "Trace on!" Without wasting a second, I crossed my arms in front of my chest, traced Kanshou and Bakuya as best I could and threw them at him. Both curved because of their attraction to each other, moving from the sides to his neck. He dodged them easily by bending over, but that was already in my plans. I prepared to trace another pair of Redeemer and Retriever, but I was interrupted by what he did.

"I got you!" He took Bakuya in reverse grip and extended his fingers pointing at my head. Then I felt a accumulation of prana in his hand. That took me by surprise, I could only cover myself with my left arm. From his fingers came a small black and red projectile at a great speed and hit my arm. The force with which it hit me was greater than I expected and I was shot down. Before I could get up, the man started talking to me.

"Hah! You're not the only one with range attacks. I hit you with a customized version of the curse called Gandr. In a short time you will begin to feel nauseous and aches, and you will be at my complete mercy. You will pay dearly for your insolence, damned ape!"

That scared me a little, but after a quick analysis on my body, I didn't see anything strange. Oh, it looks like he couldn't get through the magical resistance of my coat and he hasn't noticed. I saw a couple of flashes behind him. My original intention was to distract him by crossing swords, but this also serves me.

I pretended to get up with difficulty and looked at him with a defiant face. "As long as I can move I will not surrender, not to someone like you." Having said that, I started projecting Redeemer and the black Bow.

"You've wanted it. Then die-! Ugh" Before I could do anything, the pair of Kanshou and Bakuya I threw earlier got stuck in his back, attracted by the original pair, piercing his lungs.

Spitting blood, he released the swords from his hands and tried to get the pair off his back, "What the hell did you do!?" Once done he turned to look at me again "It's useless, it's already too lat-" But he stopped half a sentence for the surprise.

"I am the bone of my Sword." Redeemer was already loaded in the bow and ready to be shot. Because of the immense accumulation of prana within him he was emitting a very intimidating and dark aura.

"Why are you not affected by the Gandr!?"

"Go Redeemer!" I released the rope and the sword was fired in a sonic burst. What I didn't expect was that instead of going through him, the "arrow" exploded on impact. And it wasn't a small explosion. I was shot down by the shock wave, the mass of flesh was also destroyed and the room began to collapse.

With one last effort, I ran into the hallway. Luckily only the rooms collapsed. With this, all the horrors caused by that bastard were buried in tons of rocks. I lay on my knees, leaning on my hands on the ground, trying to catch my breath. I can't afford to collapse now, I still have to take the girl into town.

At that moment I felt that I was being watched. Alarmed, I looked in the direction I felt it, only to see the little girl who was supposed to be waiting for me at the entrance.

With an embarrassed expression, he raised his hand and said, "Hello, sir."

Although I was relieved to find that that being had not emerged from the rubble to continue the fight, I was not happy that the girl could have seen something so unpleasant. "What you're doing here? It's very dangerous. I clearly remember telling you to wait at the entrance." I did not say it in a very annoying tone because, given his age, she should not fully understand yet what kind of mess he got into. When she heard me, she lowered her head and answered.

"Well, since you were taking so long, I decided to come in and get you."

That was understandable, after all, children are usually impatient. Although I didn't like it, I would have to ask one last uncomfortable question. "Tell me, did you see what was in that room?"

She touched his chin with his hand and started making sounds like she was trying to think. "I really don't remember. I saw some flashes and heard loud noises across the room, so I went straight to see what was going on."

I sighed with relief to know that she didn't see the pile of corpses. Although the relief lasted a short time, specifically until my brain finished processing the second part of the sentence.

"Hey, wait don't tell me that-." But I was interrupted by her following her speech.

"Then I saw you fighting with that scary old man. That was AWESOME. I could hardly see you, it was like Fush Clang, and then you blew ihe up with that blast..." She kept counting the rest of the fight in his own way, until she got scared of the aura of Redeemer that I shot and ran away. I was sweating my ass off by now. Marcus always told me it wasn't good for me to expose magecraft to normal people, although he never told me the consequences. Anyway, I didn't mean to find out.

I knelt down in front of her and took her by the shoulders so she could look directly at me as I pleaded with her. "For your own sake, don't tell anyone about that!"

"But, sir, if I don't, no one will know that you were the one who beat the bad guy and saved us."

I didn't expect that, I thought she would just want to brag about what she had seen. "That doesn't matter. First of all, I did not do it for any kind of fame or profit. Having been able to save you all is enough for me."

She stared at me for a few moments until she finally responded with a pout. "That's not fair. Everyone will be happy and yet you will get nothing in return." Eh, how I ended up making her feel sad for someone like me? I need to cheer her up somehow.

"Okay, you can tell whoever you want. As long as you don't mention the magic part there won't be a problem. It will be our secret, all right."

"Okay, sir, I won't tell anyone about your powers." At the end she showed me her genuine smile. That made me feel so much better.

"A, one last thing. Stop calling me sir, you make me feel older than I am. Just call me Finn."

"So, you call me by my name too, my name is Martha."

"Martha eh, that's a good name." I responded by imitating my father a little when we met. For some reason, she blushed. That said I got up. "We'd better go back, your parents must be worried."

And so, we finally came back to rest, that had been a really long night.

* * *

Days passed, and as expected the attacks ceased. The town was again a joyful place and Alfred organized a party to celebrate it.

As for me, I was preparing to leave. I saw from afar the happiness and smiles of all. That alone made it worth risking my life to save them. With nothing else to do here, I set out to leave. My journey is far from over, there are still more people out there who need to be saved. Besides, the being I faced was just a pawn, so there has to be a master mind pulling the strings, and his intentions don't seem to be very good.

"Finn!" Suddenly I heard someone yelling my name behind me. When I turned around I saw Martha gasping and leaning on her knees. It looks like he came running here. "Oh, what are you doing here Martha, you shouldn't be having fun at the party?"

"That's what I should be asking you, all this has been possible because of you. Why are you leaving without even saying goodbye?"

"Well, I'm just a traveler who arrived a few days ago. Let's just say it doesn't feel right for me to participate in a local party."

Then he breathed a fairly long sigh. "Why do you have to be so dense? Anyway, at least promise me that you will visit us again sometime."

"I can't promise anything, but I assure you I will try." That said, I turned and started walking again, raising my right hand as a farewell gesture.

"I'll be waiting for you, so don't disappoint me!"

And so, my first stop on my journey ended to save them all.

* * *

**And that's all for now. Many things have happened in this chapter. Finn's skill set is already complete, now he just need to refine them to the maximum. You may think giving him the Burst prana is an exaggeration, but he's gonna need it considering what he's going to face in the future. Besides, it won't be as op as Saber's. In the fight, using three already spent a large part of his reserves. So, he can't go around spaming prana burst. Of course, Kanshou and Bakuya could not miss out on his arsenal. Apart from the fact that I like them very much, they are the swords that best match someone without pride. Their appearance may be a little forced, but it is the only thing I saw with sense. If you don't go to them, then they will have to come to you. Besides, we don't know where EMIYA got them either. In addition, Finn also inadvertently discovered the first movement of the triple linked crane wings. **

**In another note, since this is a fictional hero, I decided to choose a fictional "villain", the dead apostles. The one Finn faced in this chapter was a firstborn, born from a ghoul. As for Trhvmn Ortenrosse, don't be alarmed, it won't be Tsukihime's version. I needed a name for the dead apostle's ancestor who would make the role of the mastermind, so I chose one that more or less fit the description. Bear in mind that this is a Fate timeline, so there is no organization of the 27 ancestors.**

**As for the final dialogues, no, there will be no romances, at least during the lifetime of King of Fakers. What happened was that I didn't think it was right to leave the child as a nameless character for the sole purpose of getting the protagonist into the fight. Then, I took advantage of it to give Finn the first warning that the path he follows will leave him completely alone. Apart from this, his experience with women will be virtually nonexistent. He will also have what I call EX Rank density. For those who wonder, Finn's current age is about eighteen, so the current date is AD 57. Someone may have already realized that the date is strategically chosen.**

**Here ends this extensive note by the author. It may have become long, but there was much to cover. I thank you if you have reached the end. As always, I would like to know your opinion, so write it in a review.**

**With this I say goodbye for now, until we meet again people.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello again people, I have returned. I wrote this chapter in my free time, and unexpectedly finished it before the exams. Still, the chapter got longer than I expected. I thought about dividing it into two parts, but I know that a cliffhanger can be quite painful, especially because it also happens to me reading other fics. Personally, I like this format where Finn meets a situation in each chapter and this one "solves it" at the end.**

**From what I saw in the reviews, the previous chapter also liked you. I'm glad, and I hope that this chapter is also up to the task.**

**Finally, to answer the question Superpierce asked: Yes, he will have more, though not an exaggerated amount. He will get the majority when he is already a heroic spirit, as is the case with EMIYA. In fact SPOILER ALERT, is not a great espoiler but you are free to skip or cover the following line:**

**In this chapter there will be another new addition to his arsenal.**

**End of the spoiler.**

**Without further ado, let the chapter begin.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

* * *

It has been a while since I left that village. I am now descending a hill towards a small coastal town. So far I've followed my routine of going from town to town helping as many as I can. To my surprise, rumors were beginning to spread about a man in a white mantle who would help anyone who needed it, that is, me. Not that I cared much, I never expected to get fame for my actions. I overlooked it as long as it didn't stop me from continuing my journey.

I also kept looking for clues about this Ortenrosse guy, but I couldn't find anything. Or that was until a few days ago. From what I hear, a ship recently came to these shores filled with people fleeing their homes saying they were attacked by the dead. Normal people found it even more absurd than the strange beasts, but what caught my eye was the part about the dead. It may be just a coincidence, but the relatives that being was using were also revived corpses.

So, I went to where the ship arrived to personally hear the testimony of the victims, that is, the town I am currently arriving at.

Once there, I asked the inhabitants where I could find the refugees. They were kind enough to show me the place, an inn near the port. I was taken care of by the man who was running the place.

"Good morning sir, can I help you?"

Normally I would have been surprised by that, I'm not old enough to be called sir. But since the last fight I had, a few strands of my hair had gone white. The only explanation I found was the stress my body suffered from using my magecraft a lot in a short period of time. Either that, or I'm going bald. I don't know which of the two options is worse.

I made an unconscious grimace and responded. "From what I was told, this is where the foreigners who arrived recently are staying, aren't they?"

"You're right. Do you have some business with them?"

"Let's just say the rumors about their story interested me, so if it's okay, I'd like to talk to them."

"Well, it may be hard for you to understand them because of their accent, but if I remember correctly, right now the man representing them is here. I don't know if he's busy, but his room is the second in the hall on the right anyway."

I went to the door in question and knocked. Shortly after, this one opened by revealing to a man a few years older than me dressed in simple fabrics. When he saw me he inspected me from top to bottom. Luckily, I found myself in the white cloak to cover my armor. From his point of view I must look like a simple traveler.

When he finished, he looked me in the eye and spoke. "Who are you and what do you want from me?"

"I'm just a traveler interested in the rumors about you. If you don't mind, you could tell me your story?"

He thought for a few moments until he finally answered. "Okay, I'll tell you. Come inside."

I did what he asked and sat on a stool in the room and he sat in bed in front of me. We were the only ones present.

"I warn you it won't be a pleasant story." I nodded and remained silent. After taking a deep breath it began.

"We lived in a small seaside village, much like this one. It was a quiet and pleasant place to live. I was a simple fisherman with a wife and a son.

It all started a few weeks ago. Suddenly some people we've known for a long time started behaving strangely. Besides, the moment someone tried to get close to them to see that it was wrong, they were bitten. The situation got worse when those who were bitten started acting the same way.

In a few days we had few left without being bitten, my wife and son did not succeed. It was very painful to have to run away from your relatives and acquaintances. Worse still, their skin and flesh began to rot, making them look like walking corpses.

Finally, we were forced to flee. We gathered the few supplies we kept and embarked in the direction here. Because of my work I've been here a couple of times, so at least I know it's not hostile territory."

I listened carefully to your story. There's no question this actually happened. The sadness and resentment of this man were genuine, even the tears skipped in the middle of the story.

After calming down he asked me. "That's all. Though I doubt you'll believe me, there's something else you want to know?"

Having heard this, there was only one course of action in my mind. "You could tell me exactly where you came from?"

"From a great island called Ireland to the west of here. To get to the village you simply have to go straight from this port without going too far."

Then I got up to go. "That's all I wanted to know. Seeing what time it is, I should go to lunch, thank you very much for your time."

"What are you going to do with this information? Don't tell me you're planning on going there."

"The truth is yes. Who knows, maybe I can do something to solve the situation."

"That's crazy. If you go you will die, or worse, you will be turned into a walking dead."

"Thank you for the warning, but I can' t overlook this. I'm sure there are many more people like you who are in danger. If I'm not going to save them, who else will?"

That said, I left the room and went to get something to eat, leaving the man with a surprised expression.

* * *

After eating, I realized I had a small problem. Although I said I would go to Ireland, I had no idea how. The only available means would be a ship, but even if with my current money I could buy one, I would not drive it and would require finding more crew. The only other option left was to board a ship that went there, but that was going to be hard to find.

Anyway, I went to check out the harbor. Hopefully, there might be someone willing to take me, even if I have to bribe him. As I walked down the runway where the boats were moored, I noticed that most of them were empty and did not seem to be used soon. Then, I saw in the background several people carrying bags on board the last boat.

I approached one of the men and asked him. "Excuse me, will this ship sail soon?"

"We plan to sail tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

"I would like to know if you can take me with you."

He kept thinking for a few moments. "I don't know, I'm not the one making the decisions. You better talk to the captain. He is already on board, I can take you to him if you want."

"Then guide the way."

Soon after I was in what I suppose was the captain's office. We were sitting on both sides of a desk. The person in front of me was a tall, corpulent, bald man with a mustache.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Seeing that this is the only ship that will sail in the next few days, I would like to know if you could take me to an island on the other side of the sea. Of course, I will pay you whatever it takes."

"So you want us to take you to where the refugees come from, huh. Well, we'll have to increase the supplies since the trip would take longer. Besides, those stories about the dead bode very badly. Why do you want to go there in the first place?"

"Let's say I want to see if I can do anything to resolve the situation, and the first step to that is to go there. Getting there is enough, you won't need to pick me up, I'll manage to get back."

"It's still going to cost you, are you sure you can afford it?"

I put my hand in my bag and took a few gold coins. I stretched my arm over the table with a clenched fist and opened it a bit by dropping three coins. His eyes instantly opened like plates and he started sweating. He checked if they were real biting one of them, which they were as expected. I doubt very much that Fedric would have given me something false.

"This... this is-"

"If necessary I can open my fist more."

He noisily swallowed and asked "How about eight?" In response I dropped five more coins. Because of my lifestyle I did not spend much until now, so I still have many gold coins left.

"Then, when will we depart?"

"Tomorrow, when we put together all the supplies."

That was surprisingly quick, I didn't think I'd find a transport today. The power of money is quite terrifying.

* * *

The trip lasted a few days and did not have many complications. The only thing to highlight was a dream I had on one night. I dreamt again of that world of swords, the only difference being that all the swords I saw from the last time were also there, even Kanshou and Bakuya. So far I have only dreamed of him a couple more times, and I discovered a couple more lines of that aria. I would put them in order like this:

"I am the bone of my sword"

"Steel is my body and fire is my blood"

"I have created over a thousand blades"

It may be a coincidence, but I'd say they describe me, more specifically my origins. And they're most likely related to this world. The only thing I can deduce is that this is where the planes of all the weapons I unconsciously look at stop. If that is so, then, is this place inside me? It's a part of me? Those are questions I still can't answer.

Finally, I still don't know what "that sword" might be. It's always in the same place, high on the hill of swords, and shows no signs of wear or rust like the others. The strange thing is that when I analyze it, I don't find anything special, it looks like an ordinary sword. But the feeling I get from seeing her makes me think she's special.

I got to the coast in the morning, although there was a lot of fog. After thinking about it for a few moments I decided to start by looking for the town where it all started. Luckily I found it near where I landed, next to a large cliff. I didn't find much when I inspected it. There was no body or remains, just some dry bloodstains, so they all must have turned undead, but I didn't see any of these either. I guess with no one left alive here they went looking for more people elsewhere. Now ,this place is just a ghost town, and the fog makes it even more sinister.

I was also unable to detect any trace of prana in the air, but it may have dissipated in the time since the incident until now.

Certainly something happened here. I will have to investigate if this has been repeated elsewhere.

I found a map of the surrounding area in one of the houses, and I could see that around here there was a swamp and another town. Seeing the closeness to this other town, I would not be surprised if the dead went there, so I went there immediately.

It took me about an hour to get there on foot. The place was covered in fog, and I didn't see anyone on the streets. I hope I wasn't late. At least the house doors were locked and there was no blood on the floor. I kept walking the streets looking for people, until I saw a man with his back to me, staring at a door and growling.

That in itself was odd. I came to see what was happening to him, although I kept my distance just in case.

"Excuse me, are you okay, something's wrong?" It seems he heard me and turned around. His eyes were white and part of the skin of his face was bare, showing off the muscle. There is no doubt that he is already dead and what is in front of me is a reanimated corpse.

He hurled himself at me screaming with the intention of biting me. "Trace on!" I immediately traced Kanshou and Bakuya into my hands. He was very slow, he didn't even have time to react when I beheaded him.

Since I first used these swords, I was attracted to them. They were quite easy to trace and adapted very well to me and my fighting style. Also, they were not trying to consume me as Redeemer and Retriever. So I decided to use Kanshou and Bakuya as my primary weapons and reserve Redeemer and Retriever for situations that require them strictly, or to use them as projectiles.

Before I could analyze more deeply what exactly had attacked me, I heard a scream. Looks like there's still someone alive here. I reinforced my legs and ran in the direction the scream came from. At the end of the street I saw four undeads slowly surrounding a woman who was sitting against the wall.

I didn't have time to get close, so I needed to get them out with a range attack. I crossed my arms and threw Kanshou and Bakuya sideways. These curved by their attraction to each other and cut the throat of the two most laden dead. The remaining two turned dazed by the sudden event, but it was too late. In that time I had already crossed the distance, and Kanshou and Bakuya were already in my hands again. With a cross cut they were both split in half.

That last move left me in front of the woman. After checking that they did not move I asked the lady. "Are you okay, were you hurt?"

She nodded and replied. "I'm fine, thank you for saving me." That relieved me, according to that man's testimony, if you were bitten, you'd become one of them.

"Tell me, do you know there are more people around here, or more things like that?" But the conversation was interrupted by some grunts. I turned and saw a group of about ten undeads approaching us.

"Huh, looks like we have more company, stay behind me, I'll take care of them."

With so many of them, getting involved in close combat would be dangerous, even more so knowing that a single wound could be fatal. The safest and most effective method would be to shoot swords at them and deal with those who survive. I may expose my magecraft, but if it's to save a life, I don't care.

I began to visualize in my mind the plans of several swords, but before I could project them something unexpected happened. The first of them stepped on something and the next instant the ground burst into a pillar of flames incinerating them all. That surprised even me. It was definitely magecraft, but I had never seen anything like it. Although now that I think about it, it's not like I knew many types of magecraft.

Once the fire went out, I could see someone approaching us. He was a man of considerable old appearance, with gray and long hair and beard. He wore blue robes and in his right hand he carried a large wooden stick with which he helped himself to walk.

I was on my guard, my instincts were telling me that he was not just an ordinary old man.

"Who are you?" I asked him while I was pointing him with Bakuya.

He raised his arms to tell me that he was not going to attack me and replied. "You can put down your weapons foreigner, I am not your enemy."

Seeing this, I began to slowly lower my arms to put them at my sides, but I did not dissipate my swords just in case. Then the woman behind me spoke.

"Please don't attack him sir, he is Eóghan, the sage of our people." Oh, it seems this man is important in this town.

"So, excuse me for this misunderstanding." I told him as I put Kanshou and Bakuya into my mantle and scattered them. Now that the woman was no longer in danger, I had to keep up appearances and not show my magecraft.

"You don't need to apologize. Anyone would be alert if a stranger approached you. Since I was introduced by the lady here, I think it's your turn to introduce yourself."

"Before that, are there still more dead in the area? If so, they must be treated immediately."

"Rest assured, those were the last ones left, I took care of the rest."

Hearing that, I relaxed. "Okay then. My name is Finn, I heard about the incidents of the dead of people coming from here, so I came to see if I could lend a hand. Seeing what happened a few moments ago, if you need help just tell me."

Eóghan thought for a few moments with his left hand caressing his chin. Finally he nodded to himself and addressed me.

"Given the situation we're in and the skills you've shown, I have no choice but to accept your help. I'll fill you in on what's going on here, but we'd better talk somewhere more discreet, so let's go to my home."

He turned around and started walking, but he stopped almost immediately. "Oh, I almost forgot about you Ciara. Could you warn everyone else that the danger has passed?"

"Understood, sir."

That said, we are heading for our destiny. The house we arrived at was the largest in the place, but it seemed to be neglected with walls full of vines. According to him it was because he liked to be in touch with nature. The interior was not very different. All the furniture was made of way, and even used a large log cut as a table. Apart from that, it was a simple home.

We sat around the table and served ourselves herbal tea to accompany. Then he started the conversation.

"You must have already deduced that the reason I brought you here is because we're going to deal with "magical" issues."

"So you are a Magus."

"You could say yes, but he considered me more a sage of the forest. I do not share those absurd ideals of seeking the Root at all costs."

"Same to me, those ideals are totally opposite to mine. Anyway, I would be considered a third rate faker."

"I would not be so sure. In all my life I have not seen anyone who can project a noble phantasm."

"Eh?" That surprised me, not because I had seen my tracing, but because of that last term. I had never heard it.

Seeing my confused face his eyes widened. "Wait, you won't tell me that you can project a noble phantasm but you don't know what it is." That statement hit the nail on the head.

"Well, if you mean the swords I used, I know about their history and how special they are because of structural grasp. But I never heard the term "noble Phantasm."

"You can also use structural analysis at a level as advanced as to read the story of an object? You're full of small surprises. As for noble phantasms, very briefly, they would be legendary weapons that are usually used by the heroes of the stories."

That makes sense, although Kanshou and Bakuya were never used by a hero, they do belong to a legend, and they even have an associated poem as far as I could see when I analyzed them more deeply.

"You're exaggerating. Besides, other than that, I can only use reinforcement and alteration. You, on the other hand, seem to have extensive knowledge of magecraft."

Then he put his fist hand in front of his mouth and coughed. "Anyway, we seem to have strayed from the main issue."

"You're right about that. You were going to tell me exactly what's going on here."

"As you may already know, there has recently been an outbreak of some kind of disease or curse that turns people into undead."

I nodded and decided to share the information I could gather so far. "In fact, before I came here I visited the town where all this mess supposedly originated. Unfortunately there was nothing left in town that could give me any clues."

"I've been researching these creatures since they first attacked. I managed to find out what they really are, ghouls." Seeing my expression, he realized he had no idea what that was, so he sighed and continued. "The ghouls are the byproduct of the vampire activities of a dead apostle. In simple terms, a dead apostle sucked the blood of a person in that village and it became a ghoul. This in turn started sucking other people's blood, turning them into more Ghoul."

Some of my unknowns had been resolved, but now there was another question that had arisen. "Could you tell me, what is this "dead apostle"?"

"That's a question that even I don't know the exact details. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that they tend to look like humans, but their eyes are red. Their power is far superior to that of humans and, for some strange reason, they developed a taste for blood."

That explanation clarified one of the issues that I had for a long time. That twisted being I fought with fit the description, so it's very likely he was one of those dead apostles.

I decided to keep that information to myself. If he was already surprised with my tracing, I don't know what will happen if I tell him that I defeated one of those beings. But still, something just didn't add up here. That time, the guy had a target, a horrible, immoral one, but his actions had a purpose behind them. In this case, what was the point of creating these Ghouls and letting them run wild? From what Eóghan said, it seems that they did not consume blood by necessity, but by simple pleasure. I left the questions for later and kept listening.

"Though I still kill them when they set foot in the village, they still come. It's strange, I doubt there were that many people in the seaside village. That leads me to believe that the apostle is still in the area, but he should have shown himself already to try to eliminate me."

He paused to catch his breath. Of course, the situation seemed confusing.

"That brings me to my last find. A couple of days ago I found in the swamp near the village a bounded field, quite complex indeed. This is located in the center and has a very wide radius. This raises another question, why would such a powerful being establish defenses in his den? That would be more like a Magus. Right now I have doubts about what we're up against."

"Well, the only way to find out is to confront him directly."

"And for that, I need your help. I do not possess any method to cross the bounded field, perhaps you do."

"I may have it, but I'll have to see that bounded field for myself. It will be better that we go as soon as possible, the sooner we finish this, the less time in danger will be the inhabitants of this town."

"You're right, but for now it's time to eat." When he said that my stomach started to sound.

"I guess you're right, I haven't eaten since I got here." And so, despite trying to convince him that I would be fine on my own, Eóghan cooked me something to eat.

* * *

The next few days are spent trying to cross the bounded field. My first plan to use Retriever failed, because even though it could easily cut through, it regenerated quickly.

After this, Eóghan showed me his plan b. Apparently, during one of his journeys in his youth he encountered a noble Phantasm. It was a great spiral sword, the years had made a dent in it and its brilliance was no longer so majestic. I used the structural analysis on it to see if it could help us solve our current problems. Its name was Caladbolg, the rainbow spiral sword, and his owner was one of the folk heroes of these lands, Fergus Mac Roich. Undoubtedly powerful, it had the ability to destroy three mountains at a stroke, but its size and weight made it difficult to use. Even if he could destroy the bounded field, along with what's inside it, it would consume a large part of my prana reserves and leave me helpless in the face of a fight with the cause of all this mess.

We decided to discard it and tried to find some weak spot in the bounded field. It was a thorough search where we combed every foot of the edge of the field, until we finally found it. Specifically, we found the source of prana that allowed the field to regenerate.

Once I cut off its connections with Retriever and isolated it, we were able to get in safely. I expected a den similar to the one used by the dead apostle I faced, what I did not expect was an abandoned fortress in the middle of the swamp.

I was pulled from my stupor by Eóghan. "This complicates things. There is no doubt that the interior will be full of defenses and traps."

"I think I'll be okay with Retriever and the magical resistance of my cloak. It's okay if you decide not to come with me if you see that you can't move on."

"Of course I will accompany you. I may have grown old, but I still wage war. Besides, I can't sit idly by while a stranger solves my problems."

"So, let's do this together. But the moment your life is in danger I want you to give up. The effect on the people by losing their most important figure can be devastating."

He nodded and we entered the fortress. Fortunately, the interior was illuminated by some rays of sunshine that filtered through the worn roof holes. The strange thing was that there were not as many traps as we thought, and we could easily deal with them thanks to the magical resistance of my cloak and its excellent handling of the runecraft.

We continued walking through the castle halls until we reached a point where we no longer found traps. At that moment, I stopped to hear a distant sound.

"Do you hear that?"

"Yes, we seem to have company."

From the bottom of the corridor appeared about twenty skeletons running towards us with swords. You were gray, and instead of a normal skull, the only thing on his shoulders was a big jaw full of fangs. Immediately, Eóghan gave me the explanation about our enemies.

"Dragon Tooth Warriors, are weak but easily mass produced familiars. They can become a problem if many come together."

"Trace on!" I nodded in understanding and traced my bow along with the sword I use as a projectile. "Ansuz!" At the same time, the wise man of the forest began to draw runes before him. Without beating around the bush, we bombarded the skeletons with twisted swords and fireballs. They didn't even get close to us.

"That was easy, I suppose the Magus did not prepare so many defenses here trusting that the delimited field would suffice." Having said that, we continue to move into hostile territory.

The journey was much quieter, until the corridor was enlarged leading to a dark room. I reinforced my eyes so I could see if there was anything in the room, and of course there was. In the center of the room I saw what looked like a huge lion, but his hind legs were a pair of goat legs. Not only that, but his back was stuck to the torso of the goat, and his tail was the head of a snake.

This thing could only be a Chimera, only this time it didn't have human parts. I stretched out my left arm to stop Eòghan, but it was in vain. The beast noticed our presence and its lion's head roared. At the same time, his tail bent so that the serpent's head was pointed in our direction.

"Here it comes!" My instincts started sending me alarms, it wasn't the first time an animal attacked me by shooting something from its mouth. I jumped to the side, pushing Eòghan with me. We almost avoided a kind of purple gas that came out of the snake's mouth. The soil where we were a moment ago began to corrode. No doubt that poison was potent.

"What are we up against?" my partner asked. It seems he doesn't have a method to see in places with little light.

"A Chimera, apparently made exclusively for combat. Keep in mind that its tail is another head and can throw poison."

"The first thing is to do something with enlightenment, if you could distract it while preparing the ground would be of great help."

"Understood. Trace on!" I strengthened, traced Kanshou and Bakuya and threw myself at the creature in a burst of speed. Keeping me close was the best way for him to focus all his attention on me.

As I approached it from the front it tried to hit me with its left claw. I dodged it at the last second and made a cut with Kanshou at his extremity. It wasn't very deep, but it did make him mad at me. I kept circling it I was causing debilitating wounds, while Eóghan filled the room with runes that emitted light.

Once he finished what he was doing, he shouted at me. "Behind you!" I looked sideways and saw that a few feet away from me was a rune on the ground. It was the same rune that burned the Ghouls the day I came to town. Without a second thought, I confronted the beast as I slowly retreated.

It rushed over me in an attempt to bite me, just what I wanted. When the chimera was already in the air, unable to change her path, I jumped back as far as I could. As a result, it fell directly into the rune and was involved in a fire explosion.

I landed beside the sage of the forest and took advantage of the brief moments of pause in the fight to discuss the next course of action. "You have some plan in mind?"

"I'll create an opening for you to pass."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll be the one fighting with the owner of this workshop, so you need to be in the best possible shape. Besides, I not only illuminated the room, but I prepared it thoroughly. Right now this is practically my territory."

Before I could answer that, the fire surrounding the Chimera scattered. Its body was completely scorched and it had difficulty getting up. Its magic resistance must be zero, or it was weaker than I thought. In that state I have no doubt that Eóghan can defeat it without problems.

Once it rejoined its main head roared again, but this time it was the goat's head that attacked. From between its two horns came a blast of pure prana. My companion responded quickly and hit his staff against the ground. A torrent of fire erupted from the tip of this towards the prana blast and both attacks collided causing an explosion that filled the room with smoke.

"Now!" That was the signal. I went straight into the smoke and went out in front of the Chimera. I decided that even though I would let Eóghan finish this, I could still help him one last time. I slipped quickly between his legs, and when I got to his back, I cut his tail off with a swing with Bakuya. I took advantage of the brief moment when the beast was stunned by the pain and ran forward.

After about a minute of running, I saw light at the end of the hall and came to what would be the main hall of the fortress. The ceiling was pierced, so the lighting wasn't a problem. In front of me stretched several rows of pillars, some of them already torn down by the passage of time. In the background I could see some stairs that rose a few meters. These led to another dark corridor.

Seeing that there was no one in this room, I continued to advance to the next corridor, but I was stopped by a voice.

"Looks like the unwanted guest has arrived." From the dark corridor a man came out and stood, staring at me from the top of the stairs. He was an adult a few years older than me by his looks, his eyes were blue and his hair was a black mane. He was wearing another fancy suit, what the hell happens to the Magus and the dress suits?

"I thought with all the defenses you set up, I'd have to find you myself. I guess I should thank you for sparing me that hassle."

"Um, seeing as you've overcome everything I've prepared up to here, I decided to get rid of you personally before you came to my workshop. Since we're going to fight, I think the presentations are in order. I am Harold Escardos, head of the prestigious family of magus Escardos." This last one he said with airs of grandeur, as if he expected me to recognize him. The only family of magus I know is the Edevane, so I have no idea who this guy is.

"The name is Finn, just like that. I don't belong to any of those prestigious families." Technically, that's true, since Marcus didn't want me to inherit the name Edevane to avoid problems with other Magus.

"So you are a simple first generation Magus. Haha... hahahaha. I never thought that, of all the people chasing me, the first one to find me here and try to steal my research would be someone like you." As he said the latter, he found it hard to hold his laughter. Even if it bothers me a little, that he despises me and get overconfident can benefit me if I have to fight him. But part of his speech disgusted me quite a bit.

"Your research? After all the trouble you caused with those ghouls, all you care about is me coming to steal your stupid research?"

"Oh, so you came for that. You could say that those things were born as a side effect of one of my experiments. If you eliminate them they shouldn't show up anymore, after all, I've already got what I wanted." I seem to be facing a typical magus for whom the end justifies the means. But as I recalled Eóghan's explanation of the Ghouls, I felt something was wrong with what he had said.

"Experiments for what? What does your research have to do with sucking people's blood?" I asked, though I could already figure out what was going on here.

"Huh, it looks like you've already discovered me.I'll tell you the purpose of my research, consider it a gift for someone who's going to die. You see, the main reason magus can't reach the Root is because our research takes a lot of time, something humans don't possess. Even if we pass on our knowledge to our successors, the investigation won't be as effective as if you continue it yourself. Therefore, I sought a method to lengthen my life span. I then looked at one of the longest phantasmal species, the dead apostles." At the end of his speech his eyes shone and became red.

"You went so far as to abandon your humanity?"

"Indeed, but no more explanations, it's time for you to die."

When he said that, his nails became claws, and he leapt at me at great speed. Unlike last time, I was already prepared. I stepped a few yards to my side and he crashed where I was a few moments ago. For some reason, instead of falling on his feet and continuing his attack, he practically fell on his head and leaned on all fours.

Without wasting the opportunity, my left knee embedded itself in his chest as he rose, drawing air from his lungs. I then thrown a downward cut with Bakuya. Thanks to the absurd reflexes he got when he stopped being human, he prevented the attack from cutting off his left arm at the last second. Still, he got a good cut on his shoulder, but it didn't take him long to regenerate.

Before I could continue my offensive, he leapt back and landed again at the top of the stairs. With that last exchange, I understood. The first apostle I faced did not have much skill in combat, but at least he understood its strength and speed perfectly. This guy recently converted, so he doesn't even count on that.

"Unaccustomed to your new strength and speed, you have no chance against me. If you surrender and leave wherever your family is, we won't spare you unnecessary bloodshed."

"Tch, I wanted to show off my new power, but instead, I ended up doing a very regrettable demonstration on my part. But the real fight starts now, after all, magus don't fight using their physical abilities. I'll show you how to really fight a proper magus."

It is a pity that he does not accept my offer, but I was expecting it. Why all magus have to be like this and not like Eóghan? When he finished talking, he swung his right arm like he was trying to cut something in front of him. A seemingly meaningless move, but to my surprise, I felt a throbbing pain in my left leg.

My pants now had a cut and on the side of my ankle there was a wound that was starting to bleed. I felt the same pain again, this time on my right side of my torso. I looked and saw another cut on my breast and a similar wound, only a little more superficial than the previous one.

I raised my head to look directly at him and he was making another cut with his arm. Following more or less his path, I saw the attack headed for my neck. Quickly, I lifted Kanshou and Bakuya in front of me. They took the attack without a scratch, but the force of this one made me slide a few feet back.

When I stabilized again, I jumped to the side and covered myself behind a pillar. On the ground where I was before a cut appeared a meter long. Apparently, my armor wasn't cut like it was nothing and it stopped most of the attack. It was brief, but I could see a ripple in the air when the last two attacks landed.

The only thing that comes to mind is that it's controlling the wind and shooting it at high speed and pressure. And it seems that he can do it with a simple gesture, without the need for any kind of aria. This was going to be complicated. If he didn't have the reflexes of a dead apostle, I'd just have to shoot him with Retriever. As things stand, the only way to beat him is in close combat. But getting close to him is not going to be easy.

"So you hide like a rat, eh. Don't think a single pillar is going to set you free!" Following this, there was an explosion on the pillar, one meter above me. It started to fall, and if I did not move, it would land on top of me.

I started running between the pillars, using them as a cover, while thinking of a strategy.

"What's the matter, don't tell me you can't even fight back. I thought you might have some sort of spell up your sleeve as you've crossed my bounded field, but I see that's not the case. It was surely the work of the local magus. It is a pity that it was not he who confronted me, it would have been much more entertaining."

This guy really likes to talk. But he's right, I have to fight back, I can't beat him if I just duck. "Trace on!" I stopped in the hall's central corridor and began to draw a dozen swords in the air above me.

"Gradation air, that's the best you've got. You're just a waste of my time, die!" He shook both arms and a bunch of air blades were fired in my direction.

"Sword Barrel, full open!" At the same time, all the swords were fired in his direction. The room was filled with noises and explosions. My swords were able to counteract most of their projectiles, but I still had to dodge a couple. Still, the explosions gave me the idea I needed.

"Trace on!" I started running towards him as I trace another round of swords. My opponent repeated his same attack and the blade clash happened again. But this time, some of my swords hit the stairs, exploding and raising a smoke screen.

"Another cheap trick. Using smoke won't do you any good against me." Saying that, he fired a few blades of air into the smoke.

"What!" But to his surprise I was not there, but was leaning on the top of a pillar near his position. I pushed myself with my legs reinforced and jumped forward, while I threw Kanshou and Bakuya. The already unstable pillar was knocked down by force of impulse.

He made a gesture with his hands and the wind began to spin at great speed around his body. As a result, Kanshou and Bakuya revoked and flew in another direction. That distraction helped me land behind him with a new pair of married swords in my hands.

By the time he turned to see me, I had already jumped on him with a cross attack with both swords. My attack was stopped a few inches from his face, as sparks of friction between Kanshou and Bakuya erupted with the compressed air.

"Those swords are useless against me, you can never defeat me using a mystery as simple as air gradation!" He yelled at me as he tried to blow me up with the wind.

"Haaaaaah!" But I was faster. I concentrated a lot of prana on my swords and used prana burst. So, the one who flew out was him, crashing down the stairs and creating a wake as he slid across the floor.

"Impossible, how can a simple third rate magus use something like prana burst!?" He said as he rose up completely hysterical. But he had no more time to think since the second pair of Kanshou and Bakuya were already flying towards him.

Not only that, the first pair I launched earlier came back being attracted by the second pair, creating an omnidirectional attack that trapped the Magus at its center. With no other choice, this used the movement I used earlier and was covered with moving winds around your body. That deflected the four swords without any problems, but they had already served their purpose.

By now, I had already come down the stairs and was running towards him as I trace the last pair of swords I needed.

"Your air gradation is useless against me!" He shout with confidence, while throwing more sharp winds at me. I kept running forward without stopping, dodging only the blades that were heading for vital points. Soon, my body was filled with superficial cuts and I started bleeding everywhere. Were it not for the magical resistance granted by my cloak and the protection of my armor, I would already be cut into little pieces.

The distance between us was reduced to just three meters. At that moment, Redeemer and Retriever appeared in my hands. I immediately threw Retriever at his chest.

"I told you, your swords are-, gah!" My opponent again used the same spell to cover himself, trusting that this sword would be deflected like all the others. A serious mistake. Retriever crossed their winds as if they were smoke, absorbing the prana used to control them and returning them to their normal state. The moment the sword was thrust into his chest, I struck the base of his handle with Reedemer's tip, nailing it even deeper. Quickly, I started pouring prana into Reedemer, which in turn was absorbed by Retriever.

His expression was now a mixture of confusion and surprise. He managed to utter a few final words while spitting blood. "You tricked me. Those leaves... guf, you're the heir to the Edevane."

"You're wrong, I just borrowed them. I have nothing to do with that family." To me, my father was always Marcus, the person who saved me from that hell. I never once thought of him as a magus of the Edevane family.

"Retriever!" By shouting the true name of a noble Phantasm, it brings out all its power. Therefore, the explosion of prana produced by Retriever was several times more powerful than the one that killed that beast. Harold's body was practically destroyed.

My consciousness began to be clouded by the pain my magical circuits produced at their limit and all my wounds, in addition to the loss of blood. My legs failed and I fell back. Again, I was forced to kill someone to save others. Although, from an objective point of view it was the right thing to do, it left a bad taste in my mouth. When I started this journey, I knew that saving everyone was an almost impossible task, an ever distant dream, but still in a beautiful dream. I guess I need to be stronger if I don't want that to stay that way.

As I was losing consciousness, a silhouette approached me.

"I see he did a number on you, but you did it." By the voice, I could recognize that it was Eóghan.

"It took you long enough to get there." I managed to respond to him with difficulty.

He crouched beside me as I followed the conversation. "The chimera still fought despite its pitiful state. Although I can't see any dangerous wounds, it would be better if I took you into town and healed you as soon as possible."

"That would be very helpful." After that everything went black.

* * *

A few days later it was already recovered thanks to the healing magecraft of Eóghan. This one tried to offer me a reward, but I turned him down by saying that healing me was more than enough. He refused to let me leave without receiving anything in return, claiming something about Irish pride, and then began a long negotiation.

In the end I ended up agreeing to help me repair my armor, and in passing, he also applied runes to my black bow to make it permanently flexible.

We also went back to the castle and got rid of the magus' research. It was very dangerous to let it be knowing that it contained a method of becoming a dead apostle.

Right now I'm outside town with my luggage and ready to go. Although this incident had nothing to do with this Ortenrosse, I saw firsthand what a magus can do for his investigation. There is no doubt that my journey is far from over.

"Then, where you plan to go now?" Eóghan asked me who came to say goodbye. I guess these days when we were cooperating together, you could say we became friends.

"I don't know, I guess wherever there are people who need saving."

"I was hoping you'd say something like that. Lately, I've had some rumors that in the continent's empire, the current ruler is a tyrant. You could start there. If you go south, you'll surely find a port, the rest is up to you."

"The continent, eh. It's a good idea, but first, I have to go back to Britannia and warn the survivors of the first outbreak that they can go home now." Having said that, I said my goodbyes and went in the direction he told me to."

"I wish you luck on your journey." He also said goodbye, but because of the distance I could not hear his last words.

"Those eyes full of determination, that strong conviction, I never thought I'd see the rise of a true hero again"

* * *

**And that's all for now. A long chapter, but a lot of things also happened. Finn is just a few steps away from discovering what the Unlimited Blade Works is, Kanshou and Bakuya are already integrated into his fighting style and Caladbolg adds to his arsenal. In another aspect, Finn is already seeing the problems that his ideals have.**

**In addition, the magecraft talk served to Finn now know the terms dead apostle and noble phantasm. That saves me having to constantly say "that being" and "legendary weapon".**

**The character of Eóghan was inspired by Cú Chulainn Caster and the stage of the fight was inspired by Einzbern Castle, after being devastated by the fight between Berseker and Gilgamesh. The final part of the fight was also inspired by the fight of MiyuShirou and Lancer in the Fate/Kaleid film.**

**As for the "villain" in this chapter, I thought I'd give a little variety to the subject. Finn always facing a dead apostle can be a repetitive. Then I thought of the stereotypical magus of Fate/stay night, but the fight would have lasted seconds with Finn shooting Retriever. So I gave him an upgrade by making him become a dead apostle, which is quite common in Fate.**

**On the other hand, the Escardos family was the only one that is confirmed to be very old in Type-Moon's wiki. And since his specialization is magecraft to extend the lifespan, it fit the role perfectly. Air control was an addition to me, as the other mysteries of the family are unknown even to modern successors. Though in this timeline, I doubt the Escardos family will last long from the death of their leader.**

**But I'm going off the rails. Anyway, the plot is now directed to the European continent, and by the date of the story, I guess you already know who this tyrannical emperor is. He'll only make a cameo appearance since I don't want King of Fakers to intervene and drastically change other legends.**

**Finally, as always, I would like to hear your views on the story in the Reviews, that would help me a lot. The next chapter will certainly wait to finish the exams to write it, so if all goes well, by the middle of June I will be done.**

**With this I say goodbye for now, until we meet again people.**


	5. Chapter 4

**I am back people! I finished the exams and started writing this, and to my surprise I finished it quite quickly. I have only one thing to say on my part, I know that a temporary leap of six years may be excessive, but the date is calculated for a certain event in this chapter. In the scheme that I have in my mind of history it was going to be like this from the beginning, and if I tried to write something in between, it would be more stuffing than anything else. So we go straight to the interesting.**

**As for the question he asked (reviewer): I had it in mind, but since I could not find anywhere an exact date of the Ulster Cycle, I finally discarded it. As you can see in the previous chapter, the Caladbolg that Eoghan found had already been used by Fergus, so in this timeline, those events have already passed. But, even if it's not from the Ulster cycle, if you wanted to see a Fate character appear in the story, in this chapter you will see it.**

**Without further ado, I hope you like this chapter with a special guest present.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

* * *

It's been six years since I arrived on the mainland, and my appearance has changed quite a bit. I grew to be six foot tall, my hair is now completely white and my skin has a slightly tanned tone. Besides, for some strange reason, my eyes also changed color, adopting a gray color similar to steel. If someone who knew me when I was still a teenager saw me right now, it would take a lot to recognize me.

As soon as I arrived on the mainland, I set out to help everyone I could. It was hard at first because people here didn't speak the same language as me, so I had to learn it. Luckily, it only took me a few months to have a conversation without too much difficulty.

The problem was that the reason I came here, the supposed tyrant emperor, was in the capital of empire, many miles to the south. If to that we add that I did not go there immediately, but I took my time visiting all the villages I found and stopping in them to see if they needed help, we get that today, six years later, I arrived to the capital of the Roman empire.

However, it was not a waste of time. I asked the people I met about the emperor, and the opinions were quite varied. Some said he was a person of great charisma and beauty who loved his people first, while others proclaimed that he was a tyrant who got rid of all the hindrances to govern. In view of this, I would have to see the matter for myself to reach a conclusion.

Other than that, I also came across quite a few things from the "moon lit world," like some noble phantasms I added to my arsenal. I met some dead apostles who claimed to be Ortenrosse's lackeys, and I was able to derail their plans. Beating them was not easy, but because of my experience in combat and because they always underestimated me for being, according to them, an "inferior being," I managed.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get much information out of them, and I still can't guess what the mastermind is planning. The apostles I met were dedicated to causing chaos and suffering where they were going. There has to be a hidden purpose behind his actions, something escapes me.

You could say that during this time I became strong enough to deal with the threats I have encountered so far. I discovered that it was that world of swords, a reality marble called Unlimited Blade Works, or in other words, my inner world. This not only stores the plans of the weapons in which I use structural analysis, but it is the cause that I can project noble phantasms without burning my magical circuits.

I also managed to complete that aria, which by the way, describes me perfectly. It serves to overwrite the reality around me in the image and likeness of my inner world. Although keeping this active consumes quite prana, it is certainly my most powerful weapon.

But still, sometimes I'm forced to kill one to save the others, and that's something I hate. Although at this point, I no longer regard dead apostles as someone I should save, I realized that there are people who simply do not want to be saved. One example of this is magus, and it is enough with their crazy research that they try to dissect when they see me projecting a noble phantasm. The only thing on their minds is that damn Root.

Anyway, at this moment I am arriving to the capital, the city called Rome. I stopped for a few moments, only to contemplate it in the distance. This was on another level, it made the towns I was in look like four houses together. Floors paved with stones, huge houses of white marble, and in the background what I suppose is the palace where the emperor lives.

When I arrived at the entrance I was greeted by two men dressed in light armor, clothing made of leather underneath, sandals, and wielding a shield and a spear. When they saw me, they crossed their lances, cutting me off, and interrogated me.

"Identify yourself and say what your reason for entering Rome is." I don't know if this is standard procedure or because I'm a foreigner, but, anyway, anyone would think I'm suspicious because of my current appearance.

"My name is Finn and I am a traveler from Britain. Hearing other people talk about this city, I decided to come visit it personally." I responded in a neutral tone. It was half true, but I can't say "I come to check if your emperor is a tyrant".

Both looked at each other, their faces did not seem very convinced. After a few moments they turned to look at me again.

"You're going to have to pay a tax to enter." It seems that in the end I'm going to have to resolve this with a bribe, again. I opened my bag with the gold coins and I checked how many I had left, so to the naked eye, about forty. Pull out a pair and gave them to one of the guards. The effect was immediate, his eyes were opened to the maximum and straight away they let me pass.

Once inside, the city was even more impressive. The streets were full of life and people carried out their activities with smiles on their faces. Seeing this, no one would think that the ruler is a tyrant, quite the contrary.

Anyway, I don't lose nothing by investigating the matter, there is still the possibility that this is not more than a facade. For the moment, as I doubt I could have an audience with the emperor so good, the best thing will be to ask locals. It will take time, so it will be best to find a place in which to reside during my stay.

With that in mind, I set off to find an inn or something by the style.

* * *

To be a great city, there were plenty of inns. I visited all, but still, they all had a price quite expensive. In general, everything was much more expensive than on the sites that I have visited throughout my trip. At this step I'm going to be without savings in a month, I will have to skimp on expenses from now on.

In the end, I ended up staying in an inn on the edges of the city as it was the more "cheap" in comparison with the other.

During the following days I was doing what I always do when arriving at a new site, get acquainted with the place while I'm helping anyone who needs it. Also took the opportunity to ask some questions. One is scare if a stranger with my appearance interviewed for no apparent reason, so I had to handle it with much tact.

It was a slow process, but it gave its fruits. In prime place, I was able to bring together the inhabitants of this city into three classes. The common people who would come to be the majority of the inhabitants, and generally have a decent standard of living, the nobility, or, as they call it here, the senate, composed by the social elite, and involved in the government along with the emperor. They are usually distinguished by the robes luxurious that they carry. And finally, the slaves, people that are "property" of the wealthy, and living in deplorable conditions.

Needless to say, this last was not to my liking, but it seems that this fact is very rooted in the culture. When people see a group of slaves on the street don't even pay attention, they continue with their lives as if it were the most normal thing. On the contrary, when I attempt to help a slave, or these same reject me, or people around look at me with faces of bewilderment. I'm afraid I can't do anything to solve this.

On the other hand, I was able to give a summary of the most remarkable actions the emperor has taken since taking office. His first step was to give money to the people, that is one of the reasons why he is described for his love of his people. On the other hand, he tried to abolish the Senate, which earned him his reputation as a tyrant. This was further cemented for killing his mother in public, claiming that she tried to poison him. Apparently, her mother had quite a political influence, so it is rumored that the emperor got rid of her to have more power.

There's definitely something here that doesn't add up, if the emperor really was a tyrant who only seeks power, why seek to make happy to his people by giving them money and entertainment, as it was the "Nero Festival"? My theory is that the senate is the one that's rotten, but to not be able to see in person the emperor is not more than that, a theory.

You could say that, with all the guys I've met, I can discern when someone's up to no good. Fortunately, it looks like a show is going to take place at the coliseum and it looks like Nero Claudius, or whatever his name is, his full name is too long, will be present. This is an opportunity I can't miss, and besides, I don't have to pay to get in. What else can you ask for?

* * *

The day of the event came and I attended this one in my combat suit disguised by my old white cloak. I wasn't wearing the right sleeve of my red cloak tied to my head as it would draw a lot of attention, but I was wearing it in a pocket of my pants in case I had to wear it.

Surely you're wondering why go to a entertaining event prepared as if you were going into battle? Not that I would do anything crazy like assaulting the emperor, simply, my experience tells me that many people gathered in a reduced space is usually the focus of many of the supernatural creatures I have encountered. In short, you have to be prepared for the unexpected.

The coliseum was a luxurious building, like all the others, whose entrance was surrounded by marble columns. The interior was a large square surrounded by bleachers with a couple of opposite entrances. In this I could see a few cages with different species of wild animals inside, I suppose they will be part of the "show".

The bleachers had a part that stood out. A large balcony in the highest part with a luxurious throne in front and several luxurious seats also around. Although now there were only a couple of guards, it was obvious that this is where the emperor and the senate will sit.

With this in mind, I looked for a suitable place to observe the balcony well. I ended up sitting on its right, at a distance that allowed me to see the balcony without having to turn my head too much. As for the height, I sat about halfway, not very high or at the level of the sand, I really didn't mind having a good view of the show.

The coliseum was quickly filled with people, and a few people entered the reserved space and filled the luxurious seats except for the throne. A couple of men with horns also entered and placed themselves on the sides of the entrance.

Then one of the members of the Senate stood up, stood at the edge of the balcony and began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome our great emperor, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus!" The horns began to ring and the audience burst into excitement and cheering. Then a person of low stature entered the balcony, with blond hair tied in a bow, emerald green eyes, and wore a red revealing dress with some pretty gold trimmings, and long boots made of gold metal. But what surprised me was, she was a woman, very beautiful by the way, and it's not like this one was trying to hide it, anyone looking at her would notice. Why didn't anyone mention this when I asked?

I pulled myself together as quickly as I could and listened to his speech.

"Greetings, people of Rome, I welcome you to this event that I organized myself for the enjoyment of all!"

When the sentence ended, people burst into emotion again, and for some strange reason some shouted "Rome". When the audience calmed down a bit, the Empress spoke again.

"Umu, I like that, I want to see that vitality and those beautiful smiles. Today, our brave warriors will face the beasts and give us a magnificent display of strength, skill and tenacity. I really hope it's to your liking." When he finished, she sat on the throne and the show went on.

Leaving aside her verbal tic, hes speech conveyed a great charisma, and there was practically no one who was not moved. And I say practically, since I could see that the looks given to her by some members of the Senate did not indicate that they had a great opinion of her. As I assumed, behind this must be a rather complex plot.

The event proceeded without any problems or unforeseen, and luckily, none of the warriors fell in combat. It was all very well organized, but I did not pay much attention to it either. Rather, I spent time observing the Empress and the Senate. The Empress watched the event go by with a smile, but there were times when her face passed to an emotionless expression and she stared at a fixed point, as if she had spaced.

That was quite strange. In one of those moments, his emerald eyes met with my steel eyes. I was mesmerized for a few moments until I forced myself to look away at the sand. I thought I saw for a few moments that a smile popped into his lips, but it must be my imagination. I hope I am not arrested for this.

When the event was over, I left there mingling with the crowd just in case and headed to the inn where I was staying for something to eat. This first contact with the Empress allowed me to understand more or less what kind of person he was. Her love for her people was truly true, and although she had an eccentric personality, I doubt she is a tyrant as she is described.

But it's strange that no one else sees this besides me, I don't know if I'm missing something important.

* * *

I spent the next few days doing my daily routine to keep my physique and magic up to date, as I went in the afternoons to the core of the city to lend my help. My research didn't go very far this time.

Right now it was night, and I was lying on the bed of my room reflecting on the next course of action. Should I try to have a meeting with the Empress, or should I see if I can find more information on the "dark side" of the city?

Before I could make a decision, my peripheral vision caught something. What I saw through the window shocked me. Fire, on the other side of the city you could see a huge column of smoke covering the starry sky. All my life, I've only witnessed two fires. The first, was the one where "I was born," the one that made me the person I am today, and the second was where I had my first contact with a creature from the "moon lit world." Both have in common that they were provoked by supernatural creatures.

The only thing on my mind right now is that I have to stop that tragedy from happening again, I have to save them.

I put on my combat suit, opened the window and jumped. In mid air I reinforced my body practically to the limit and landed on the ground without problems. People around me were surprised, but I didn't pay attention to it. I immediately ran at full speed to the other end of the city.

I arrived in less than a minute, and surprisingly, the city guards had already begun to evacuate the civilians and take them to the Empress's palace. Without a second thought, I joined them and started helping people get out of their homes.

As I was leaving to check that there was no one left in a house, I heard a guard talking to a person.

"Hey you, you must come with me, you're not safe here." The man in question turned and ran to the guard.

I was about to let it go and go look in another house, but I was interrupted by a scream from the guard.

"Wait, what are you doing? Ah!" I turned to look at him and saw that the guard had been shot down by the man, and he was trying to bite him unsuccessfully as the guard prevented him with his shield.

I've seen this before, what's attacking the guard was a ghoul. I immediately ran towards them and kicked the head of the Ghoul, destroying his skull with my reinforced strength.

The guard looked at me with alarm. "Why did you kill him!?"

"That man was already dead, what you saw was nothing but an empty shell. Tell the others not to hesitate to kill anyone who acts weird and attacks them, if they bite you will become one of them so be very careful." Seeing how serious I was, the guard nodded and headed to where the others were.

I had to make a change of plans, if there are ghouls here, there must be a dead apostle in the area, and he's probably the cause of this mess. I need to get rid of him before things could get worse.

I jumped on the wall of a house, and when I landed I jumped back quickly into the facade of another building. I repeated this process until I got to the rooftops. From there I had a vision of a large part of the city, and what I saw I did not like. The ghouls were already scattering all over the streets, and the soldiers were not opening up.

"Trace on" is the name! I projected my bow and started shooting twisted swords at all the dead I saw. With my support fire, the guards were able to escort the civilians without too many problems. The situation was stabilizing, but suddenly I heard someone yelling.

"Watch out, behind you!"

So, my instincts and reflexes got to work to the fullest. Quickly, I tilted my body to the left, and a claw grazed my right shoulder. At the same time, I took a reverse grip on the sword I was about to shoot and threw a stab behind me. This one landed on my attacker's neck, and with a little leverage, I managed to behead him.

Without looking back, I loaded the "arrow" into my bow and shot it at a Ghoul who was approaching the guard behind me. He was surprised to see the projectile pass so close, but then saw the ghoul fall dead with his head pierced and understood.

With no more imminent dangers, I turned to see what attacked me, but it was just another Ghoul. It was to be expected, I doubt I could have killed a dead apostle so easily.

But then, I saw it. A few roofs away, there was an older man dressed in a black gala suit. His hair was a gray mane and his eyes were red. It was definitely the dead apostle who had caused all this mess.

Our eyes met for a few moments, and the next instant I started running towards him. Strangely enough, instead of confronting me directly, he started running away from me.

As expected, his speed was higher than mine and he was starting to drift further and further away. But I wasn't gonna let him walk away that easily.

"Trace on!" In my right hand appeared one of the noble phantasm I met during my journey. Rather, I found its fragments in a cave where a dead apostle was hiding. Its name was Hrunting, a black magic sword with a long grip and three holes lined up on its blade. Its special feature was that it could turn any swing into the most optimal slash.

But the really interesting thing about this sword was what happened when you used it as a projectile. I applied alteration and the blade twisted around its core, adopting a silvery tone, while loading it into the bow. I started introducing prana into it until it started emitting a red glow.

"Hrunting!" I shouted his name and released the rope. It became a red flash and crossed the distance between the apostle and me in less than a second. He jumped off the path of the "arrow" in a display of his absurd reflexes, but unfortunately for him, Hrunting was not an ordinary projectile. It is a sword capable of smelling the blood of its target, so as long as I regard the apostle as my target, this one will pursue the apostle relentlessly until it reaches him.

The "arrow" was "bent" and changed course, again heading towards the apostle. This one, in the middle of the air, could do nothing but get the attack from the front. On impact, Hrunting exploded due to the large amount of prana inside. I didn't expect to beat him with this hit, but at least it bought me enough time to get close.

Without giving him time to recover, I jumped on him as I traced in my hands another noble Phantasm that I recently acquired. It was a standard design sword, dark silver and with a golden color guard with black symbols. Its name was Durandal, the peerless sword, although previously it was a spear called Durindana, and it possessed three "miracles" that made it unbreakable.

I poured prana into her and this one wrapped in light. The apostle, still disoriented by the explosion, had no choice but to cross his claws before him and receive my attack. My reinforced strength, combined with gravity and Durandal's own power, resulted in the impact cracking the roof on which we found ourselves and my opponent's feet sinking into the marble that made up the roof.

Even so, he barely managed to resist and began to try to repel me. Before he succeeded, I pumped more prana to Durandal, performing a prana burst . He flew out in smoke, and I had to jump in his direction because the roof started to collapse.

I landed on the other roof, at a certain distance from where he crashed. I didn't want to rush in and make a fatal mistake. I dissipated Durandal, it was a sword that required a lot of prana to make it work, and instead I traced Kanshou and Bakuya and took the stance I developed during the many battles I fought in these years. Legs separated and semiflexed with the left leg forward, with the left arm stretched while the right arm was bent, with both blades pointing forward.

My opponent did not take long to get up, and to my surprise, the damage I caused him was far less than I expected. His suit was torn from all sides, but his wounds, though caused by a sacred sword, were closing fast. Moreover, now that I have noticed, his presence was far more imposing than that of all the dead apostles I faced.

Once he got rid of the dust, he said. "That was an impressive demonstration of power and skill. Now I understand why none of my subordinates had a chance against you.

Wait, subordinates, don't tell me. "So you are the master mind of all this, Ortenrosse."

"Indeed, Trhvmn Ortenrosse at your service. Although this meeting was more of a fluke, I didn't expect to run into you here."

"Tell me, what are you planning? I doubt you just want to cause chaos because it's in your nature."

"Don't think I'll trust myself like that bunch of worthless people and I'll tell you my plans just like that. You will know in due course, but now is not the time for our final confrontation, I still have certain matters to take care of."

"Huh, do you really think I'm gonna let you just walk away like that? This is the best chance I have to end your plans." Even though I said that, I was starting to sweat right now. The aura that emanates at this time is very oppressive, this may be the first time I am forced to deploy the Unlimited Blade Works.

"Not under normal conditions, but right now maybe." After he said that, I heard a huge and awful roar.

Running through the streets of the burning city, there was a huge creature that could only be described as an abomination. It was a mass of flesh interwoven in the form of a quadruped animal, and from its back sprang a few monstrous tentacles. That thing was the whole version of what the first dead apostle I defeated was trying to create. And worst of all, it was headed to the palace where all the evacuees were.

"Choose, you can go stop my pet and save the civilians, or you can let them die and try to defeat me." I really have no choice. And by his smug expression, so does he.

"Tch, okay, you win. But rest assured, I'll find you and I'll stop you." That said, I ran out to the Empress's palace.

"Wise choice. We'll see each other again, "hero"." He said his last words before disappearing with some kind of illusion spell.

In the distance, I could see a group of guards facing the stairs going up to the palace, fighting the hordes of ghouls. In front of them, was the Empress Nero wielding a red sword with a form similar to a flame. Her technique with the sword was completely opposite to mine, it seemed that she was dancing around the dead as she cut them with ease and grace.

To go out and fight with the enemy in the first line, instead of hiding behind his soldiers, I had no doubt that Nero Claudius was the best ruler Rome could have.

Still, they were slowly being overwhelmed by the ghouls. That was an oversight of me, without my supportive fire the situation got worse than I expected. At least, it looks like all the citizens were evacuated in time.

There was still time before the monster got here, So the first thing I have to do is get rid of the ghouls so the Empress and the guards can escape and not get caught in the crossfire while I deal with the abomination.

With the next course of action already in my mind, I dissipated Kanshou and Bakuya and traced my bow again. This time, instead of tracing a normal sword, I traced three rapiers with the grip caught between my fingers and altered them to take the form of improvised steel bolts. I loaded them into my bow and shot them, quickly repeating the process several times. In this way, I was able to fire projectiles with enough penetration to kill the ghouls and at a much higher speed and cadence than normal.

The ghouls were literally bathed in a rain of steel.

With the place already cleared, I jumped off the roof and landed next to the Empress. I jumped off the roof and landed next to the Empress. Now that I see her more closely, she really was beautiful, but this is not the time to think of unimportant things.

"I thought you needed a hand."

She smiled and answered. "In fact, I thank you on behalf of Rome for your help. Since I saw you at that event, those eyes, I knew you were special. I was worried when they told me you disappeared.

That's amazing, with only one look she could see through me. "Let's just say I had a little encounter with the guy behind all this mess, but he got away from me and now he's left us his "pet"."

Just when I finished the sentence, the monster turned a corner at the end of the street. When it saw us, it let out another roar and started running towards us. Nero's eyes widened, and the soldiers behind us began to panic.

I stepped forward with determination and kept talking. "That's why I need you to gather your men and take refuge in the palace while I take care of that thing."

She looked at me in surprise. "Are you sure you'll be okay on your own? Although I don't know much about magecraft and those things I can still defend myself."

Hearing that I denied with my head. "I have experience dealing with this kind of thing. Besides, right now it's when people need their leader the most, I can't let anything happen to you while you fight that thing. Instead, I have nothing to lose."

Nero nodded grudgingly and replied. "Okay, I will do as you say. But you're wrong, it would really be a shame for a beautiful person like you to die here. So you'd better come back safe and sound.

His words made a little smile pop in my face. "I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, I have no intention of dying here, I still haven't saved everyone."

"That's the way it should be. I wish you luck." That said, he turned to his men. "Listen to me, my soldiers, we must retreat into the security of my palace. In the meantime, this brave hero will defeat that horrible monster."

Once I made sure that they left, I faced the abomination again and my face became a serious expression.

"Trace on." In my hands Kanshou and Bakuya appeared again, and I projected upon myself a few unnamed low rank noble phantasms. With the current state of my prana reserves and my magic circuits starting to warm up, I'm gonna have to do this the most efficient way possible.

"All right, tough guy, this will be between you and me. I will end your painful existence so you don't suffer anymore."

The amalgam had already crossed half the distance between us. I ran in his direction with a plan already drawn in my mind, while the swords suspended in the air followed me. The creature roared and pointed at me with the tentacles of its back. From its tips sprang out protuberances made of bone in my direction.

At first, I had traced the low rank noble phantasms to keep the tentacles occupied, but I suppose I will have to improvise. I flooded the swords with prana, making them unstable, and I fired them at the incoming shells.

The air was filled with a cacophony of explosions and noises. I kept running forward, as far as I could see, the abomination couldn't shoot any more of those things. I entered the reach of its tentacles, and they immediately hurled themselves at me with the intention of piercing me.

I began to zigzag between them, letting them sink into the ground, while cutting or diverting with Kanshou and Bakuya which I could not help. Some came to touch me, but could not pierce my armor and cloak. Once I passed them, the monster launched its last desperate attack. From its "eyes" came a couple of concentrated prana rays, and from what I could feel, they had enough power to pierce the magical resistance of my cloak.

However, at this point, stopping and dodging was not an option. In a suicide maneuver, I jumped from where they were going to hit and turned my body to the left in a lateral stance. I went through the gap between the two lasers, within inches of being singed.

In the middle of the air, I completed the turn to face my opponent again and replaced the married swords with my bow and Redeemer. I landed in front of the creature, with my right knee resting on the ground to shoot. I loaded the cursed sword on the rope of the bow and I pulled it, as it stretched out, it became thinner and the peaks of its guard rolled around the blade.

"_I am the bone of my Sword._" When I pronounced the first line of my chanting, Redeemer was reinforced and immediately filled with prana. The monster didn't even have time to try to fight back.

"Redeemer!" I shouted the name of the noble phantasm and released the rope in a huge burst of energy. The sword pierced the chest of the amalgam, breaking it in half in the process, and continued to fly into the sky. The creature's remains were quickly consumed by the curse and turned to dust. That Redeemer's property saved me the trouble of getting rid of a lot of phantasmal species bodies.

I stood up and began to stabilize my breathing. My circuits were burning, but it was nothing I could not bear. As I thought what I was going to do next, something small and cold hit my head. As I looked up, I realized it had started to rain. The flames of the city were already beginning to burn out.

"I guess that's one less problem. For now, I should check if my luggage hasn't been burned." I said to myself and went in the direction of the inn.

* * *

The casualty count was amazingly low thanks to the Empress's quick reaction and Rome was rebuilt in a short time. I guess the ghouls were brought in by Ortenrosse and they weren't converted citizens.

As for me, you could say I disappeared from the scene. I didn't really do it to avoid getting rewarded or getting noticed, it was more of a strategy. As I was practically only seen by Nero and his soldiers during the incident, I thought that if I did not show myself, all credit would go to the Empress and her popularity would increase again. Besides, I could see Nero's story as I analyzed his sword, and I knew that Rome was in good hands.

Over the next few years, I continued to look for clues as to Ortenrosse's whereabouts without straying too far from the capital.

Still, it seems I underestimated the Senate. Around three years later, I got rumors of a revolt. Needless to say, I went there immediately, hoping that I could get there in time to stop them from getting out of hand and end up doing something foolish.

The fact that there were no guards at the entrance was not a very good sign. The streets were totally devoid of any signs of life, and the place was in pretty bad shape. I heard voices in the distance and followed the direction they came from.

I ended up arriving at the central square of the city, or Agora as they call it here. People were gathering around what looked like an impromptu stage, and above this I could recognize one of those senate guys I saw years ago at that event. He coughed to get the attention of the assembled people and began a speech.

"Citizens of Rome, today we have managed to make history. The dark era in which we lived has finally ended. Thanks to everyone's support, we have managed to overthrow the tyrant Nero Claudius once and for all. The people, united, have succeeded in defeating that soulless emperor who was only seeking power, without caring to get rid of anyone if necessary. Not only that, but we made his run away with his tail between his legs."

The man continued to discredit Nero, but I was no longer listening. My fists were clenched and shaking, and a vein had been marked on my forehead. Not only was he saying anything but bullshit with a nasty smile on his face, but he was still trying to imitate the way she talked. This guy really accomplished what no human or dead apostle had ever accomplished.

My patience reached its limit, and I ended up jumping on the stage. The guy stopped saying nonsense to look at me.

"Who are you supposed to be and what do you think you're doing here? guar-" He couldn't finish the sentence before my right fist was embedded in his face. I didn't use reinforce, since I didn't mean to kill him, but breaking his nose felt strangely good. He fell down from the stage, and no one bothered to try to help him.

I went to the edge of the stage so he could hear what I was going to say. "You really pissed me off! You really think you have some right to speak this way of your empress, the person who, while you were sheltering in the security of the palace, was holding her sword on the front line against the dead along with her soldiers. You dare to say all that nonsense about the person who gave all her love for her people without caring that they didn't love her, while you just sit in your house and watch your coffers fill up with your dirty money."

At the same time I was talking, all my frustration and helplessness came out. My expression was changing from one of anger to one of steel. When I was done with him, I raised my head to look at people, I had them, too.

"And you guys really let me down. Not just for letting these guys get away with it. Think about your actions and think about how it must have felt for the person who shouldered all the burden of caring for you and leading you, when you simply abandoned her. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find someone."

I got out of there at a fast pace, so that asshole said, Nero escaped, so I have to find her. It took me a while to keep calm, more than anger towards the senate or the citizens, I felt anger towards myself. I felt like this was really all my fault, that if I had handled things better, this wouldn't be happening.

Thanks to my reinforced view, I was able to find her alone on a plain, leaning against a rock. This one wore white fabrics and still kept her crown of olive branches.

When I approached her, I felt a hole forming in my stomach. His chest was pierced by a knife, and the wound was gushing with blood. I had arrived too late to save her, and because of my incompetence in magecraft, I have no way to heal her.

She turned her head with the few remaining forces to look at me. "A little late, but in the end, you came back." She spoke to me with a thread of voice.

I approached to stand beside her. My face had now become a mask devoid of emotions by the shock of the situation.

"Don't make that face, it doesn't suit you. I would like at least... to see that beautiful expression of determination you had during the fire once again." Despite the pitiful state in which she found himself, her voice and charisma managed to reach me.

I shook my head and pushed out all the turbulent emotions inside of me. At least, I could grant she her last request.

"Alright, I will see you to the end, it's the least I can do for you." That said, I made a copy of my red cloak, and covered her up.

"Umu, that's better. You will have the honor seing me, the cross-dressing beauty, wearing your beautiful cloak." Even in her last moments continues with her personality eccentric.

"By the way..., you never told me your name. I would like to... know it."

"You're right, I guess it is time for me to present. My name is Finn, just like that, and I'm a traveler from Britain that seeks the dream of save them all."

"Britannia huh..., I guess to establish relations with that island turned out to be useful. A beautiful dream that you have there... by the way."

"If I tell you the truth, I came here to check if the rumors of the emperor tyrant was certain. But I am glad that it was not so. It is quite ironic that it is a stranger the only one that could understand the truth behind your actions." Actually I did cheat a little by reading her story on her sword, but anyway, I think I would have deduced it sooner or later.

"If you put it like that... I guess you're right. But I think... that in this case, the beautiful attracted to what is beautiful. I would have loved... for you to see any of the performances... in my Domus Aurea." It was very disheartening to see how the little life ebbing out of her. But I promised I would accompany her to the end without showing a face of repentance, and I will comply.

When I was about to give him my farewell, I noticed that someone came nearer to us. I turned around to see who it was, and I took a surprise. The people who were gathered in the Agora, had now come up here, but what is more surprising were their expressions. Far away from any displays of resentment, their expressions were now of solemnity, and even some sadness.

Then, a man took a step forward, which I recognized as the one soldier who was saved from a ghoul during the fire, and talked. "Your words reached us and opened our eyes." But before he could continue I stopped him.

"To me it is not who is what you have to say, but to herself." I said as I stepped aside.

The man nodded, and everyone present surrounded the rock where was Nero. The same man was the one who I speak for all.

"Lady Nero, although we don't expect you to forgive us, we came to give thanks on behalf of all the inhabitants of Rome, for all that you have done for us during your government. It's been an honor to serve under your command, and you will always be remembered in our hearts."

At the end of his speech, they all bowed themselves in sign of respect, and some were moved to tears.

Nero, with a last effort she nodded and I could hear her last words thanks to my reinforced ear.

"Umu..., thank you... for fulfilling... my last wish."

And so, the empress of the roses breathed his last breath, surrounded by people she loved, the same people who finally understood her thanks to the help of another person equally distorted.

I readjusted the part of my cloak laced in my head and I went quietly of the place. There was nothing more I could do here and it seems that Ortenrosse was quite far away.

Perhaps, it is time for me to return home.

* * *

**And that's all for now. This was more of a development chapter of Finn, and when I say development, I mean him being hit by the harsh reality. As for the action, I showed you a Finn already with much more experienced and badass, with a much more expanded arsenal. It should be emphasized that the Durandal Finn found has not been used by Roland, I took advantage of the enormous legal vacuum between Hector losing it and being given to Charlemagne. As for the Unlimited Blade Works, you will see the complete aria when Finn uses it, if I make you a spoilr, the scene will lose all emotion.**

**Also, I hope I was able to capture Nero's personality well and reflect the final emotional moment well. If you go into the history of Fate Nero you will find some differences with the facts in the chapter. Obviously, in the original story, the fire had no plot with a dead apostle behind it, and the revolt against Nero was also overtaken by the influence of Ortenrosse. However, thanks to Finn's intervention, Nero had a more "happy" ending. The idea behind this meeting was for Finn to interact with a person with values similar to his. That is why he could easily understand the love Nero feels towards his people.**

**The final fight was postponed, but I can assure you it will be by all that high. And, although it seems that Ortenrosse is simply doing evil because yes, believe me, he has a great goal, the rest I leave to your imagination. Anyway, I don't plan on dragging this out much longer, so you'll see soon. Remember, this is the introduction of the King of Fakers character, I have more plans for him when this is over.**

**Finally, let's go with the references that were in the chapter. **

**-The part of the rapiers was inspired by Archer vs Assassin's fight at Heaven's Feel Lost Butterfly, specifically the part where Archer loads three metal bolts into the Black Bow and shoots them at the same time.**

**-Finn's final move against the abomination is based on the UBW scene where Archer shoots a Caladbolg at Caster.**

**-The scene where Finn kills the Ghoul on the roof is inspired by the final part of MiyuShirou vs Assassin in the Fate/Kaleid film.**

**-The stance Finn developed is basically what Archer uses in his fight against Shirou at UWB.**

**-Finally, the scene of the Senate guy contains two references. The first is a Jojo's Reference that I don't think I have to name. As for the second, the punch to the Senate guy is a tribute to the last chapter of the fanfic called Fate-in-time. Great Fic by the way, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, although I really doubt you're here and you haven't read it.**

**Finally, as always, I would like to hear your views on the story in the Reviews, that would help me a lot.**

**With this I say goodbye for now, until we meet again people.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Here I am again people! This came out much faster than I expected. I'll get right to the point, this will be the last "arc" in this story, so the outcome is close. From what I saw in the reviews, you seem to like the last chapter. I'm glad, I hope this chapter meets your expectations.**

**Finally, regarding the review of Hero of Justice Roxas: your idea was really good, and it could have fit well with the scheme of history that I have in my mind. The problem with implementing it is me. My knowledge of runes is quite scarce at best, the ones you saw in the Irish chapter are the few that used Cu Chulainn in UBW and the Fate/Grand Order movie. Also, I don't know much about Scathach and the land of shadows, basically how little is shown in Fate/Grand Order. But if you're worried about Finn not having enough power to beat Ortenrosse, that's already planned. There is still a very powerful Phantasm noble available to Finn at this time, and if you remember that mysterious sword that was in the Unlimited Blade Works, that will also be important. As for Merlin and Morgan, I didn't plan for King of Fakers to be that powerful either, he will be strong but not op.**

**Without further ado, let the chapter begin.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

* * *

It has been a little less than a year since I left Rome, and I had already arrived in Britain. The trip this time was much shorter, since this time I did not make many stops. There was nothing more I could do in the empire, now it was up to the citizens to choose their leader wisely.

The first thing I did when I arrived was to go to my old home to visit my father's grave. I was surprised to see that the cabin had not collapsed over time, it seems that the inhabitants of the nearby town were taking care of it during my absence.

When I visited the village, I was greeted by some familiar and new faces. Unfortunately, people who were already older at the time, such as Fedric and Anwen, had already died of natural causes. It's a shame I couldn't say goodbye to them. Fedric's descendants inherited his office, and although we never met in person, they celebrated a party to commemorate my return.

Those were nice days that helped me relieve some stress.

Since I was fulfilling old promises, I decided that my next stop would be the town where I first faced a dead apostle.

When I got there, I noticed there was a lot more movement on the streets than I remembered. Apart from the houses and buildings I remembered, there were now quite a few tents on the streets, and the people who lived on them did not seem to be in the best condition.

There's clearly something going on here, I'll have to ask Alfred if he's still alive. With that in mind, I tried to go to the central building, if I remember correctly, that's where the city manager was. The key word is "tried," I ended up walking the streets without finding the place.

When I was about to ask for directions I heard a noise, followed by the voice of a woman near me.

"No, not again please." When I turned around, I saw a woman about nineteen years old, with brown hair and blue eyes, carrying sacks. Apparently, one of those sacks had fallen on the ground.

Without thinking twice, I came to help. I picked up the sack from the floor, showed her a smile and asked her. "May I help you, miss?"

She looked at me in surprise, and I remembered that with my current appearance, I might have frightened her. But before I panicked and tried to clear up any misunderstandings, she smiled a little embarrassed and responded.

"Right now, an extra pair of hands wouldn't hurt." That said, I carried more than half the bags, and not all because the woman refused, and I followed her. To liven up the journey, and in passing get some information, I decided to start the conversation.

"May I know what we are carrying exactly?"

"This? Provisions for, um, the reception center. You'll see when we get there."

A few minutes later, we were in front of a huge tent. The interior was a dining room, with some stretchers where wounded were treated. It looked like a place to host war refugees. We left the sacks behind a bar and I said goodbye to the woman to go for explanations, but I was interrupted by this one.

"Wait! I'd like to thank you for your help. How about you come to my house and I'll pour you some tea?"

I turned to politely reject her offer, but when I looked into her eyes, I realized something. Even though age had changed her a lot, the similarities were still there. I recognized this woman as Martha, the girl I involved during the incident of the dead apostle.

Well, I didn't expect to meet her so suddenly, but since I came here to visit her in the first place, I guess a tea won't hurt.

"If that's what you want, lead the way." Moments later, we were sitting around a table with a cup of tea for each of us. She's the one who started the conversation.

"From the looks of you, I'd say you're not from around here, where did you come from, sir?"

It seems she hasn't recognized me yet, it's not surprising with all that I've changed.

"I come from the mainland, but originally I was from here."

"Then you must be back from a long journey, wow, you sure have a lot of stories to tell." Hearing that, my expression became a mixture of nostalgia and bitterness.

"You could say yes. I have been traveling for at least ten years, and I have experienced many things." I paused and sighed.

"But from what I've seen, quite a few things have happened here as well. Could you tell me more or less what is going on?"

"Well, you see, for a few months now an army of creatures began to invade northern Britain. Several cities have already been razed and survivors fled south. The people you saw in the tents are these survivors. Since then, the nobles regrouped and have built a front in the city of Roan, a few miles north of here. More and more wounded and evacuated reach from the front, and from what I hear, the situation is getting worse and worse."

At this point, my face was an expression of pure seriousness. Looks like Ortenrosse has already made his move while I'm not there yet, and this time he's serious. Martha did not notice my expression and followed her speech, although she now had an expression, how to put it, dreamer?

"From the description I could get of the creatures, they look a lot like a being who was kidnapping people in this town quite some time ago. I was a child then, and I was one of the victims. But, luckily, a good man rescued me and defeated that evil being. I hope that hero will return and defeat those monsters."

Well, if before I had doubts that this woman was Martha, now there is no more. I looked at the cup of tea in front of me and saw that it was already empty. I got up from the chair and started saying goodbye.

"Thank you for the tea and for telling me this, but I have to go."

"No, thank you for helping me with those sacks. What are you going to do now, sir?"

"I'll go to the front, maybe there's something I can help."

"But sir, that's suicide. If you want to help, why don't you stay here? With all the hustle and bustle going on right now, we could really use your help."

Then I looked at her with a look full of determination and answered. "If there are people in danger out there, then I must go and save them. If I don't, who will?" She was shocked to hear my words. While I was about to walk out the door, she spoke again.

"Wait sir, could you tell me your name?"

I couldn't help but smile a little. "You should know by now Martha, my name is Finn." That said, I went out the door, although from the corner of my eye I thought I saw some tears slipping down Martha's cheeks.

* * *

I arrived in the city of Roan that same night. The city itself was in a pitiful state, the streets and houses were empty. To the north of the city you could see a large stone wall extending a few kilometres, with several observation posts at the top of the city. I suppose it was to slow down the advance of Ortenrosse's army. During my inspection of the city, I found a couple of buildings had lights inside, and to my surprise, they were both surrounded by a bounded field.

Luckily, I was able to get through them without triggering any alarm or trap. The first building was a kind of infirmary where several soldiers were being treated with fairly ugly wounds, even some had lost some limb.

When I approached the door of the second building, I could hear the voices of several people who seemed to be in a assembly.

"Tell me Tim, what is your approach to our current resources?"

"According to my estimates, if the situation continues like this, we will last a week, two at most if we ration the food and omit some of the meals of the day."

"Tch, so little, we are running out of time. Hey, magician-" The voice was interrupted by another more hoarse with some contempt. Contempt.

"It's magus, not magician, and my name is Adam Barthomeloi, you'd do well to remember that."

"Yeah, whatever you say. When did you say your family's reinforcements were coming?"

"I told you I don't know exactly, this isn't the only place that's under attack, the other members of my family are hunting down other dead apostles scattered around Britain. It may take weeks or months." The person paused and spoke again.

"But we seem to be in luck. Another magus has just arrived in town. Why don't you go in and introduce yourself?" Well, it looks like I was discovered, probably by the bounded field.

I opened the door and was greeted by a group of people dressed in armor, gathered around a table with what looked like several maps and scrolls. In the corner of the room, there was a man the same age as me, with hair and brown eyes, and dressed in an elegant white suit. Magus and their fetishes of going always dressed in a striking and luxurious way.

I put on a smile of circumstance and scratched the back of my head. "I hope I am not interrupting something of paramount importance. My name is Finn, I'm a traveler who came to lend a hand. And, well, as that man has already told you, I am a magus, although I prefer the term spellcaster or faker."

The magus on the corner spoke again before everyone else. "I know you, you're the strange third rate magus who was hunting dead apostles across the continent a few years ago, right."

I nodded and replied. "I did not expect to be known in the "moonlit world," but yes, that would be me."

"Well, your skills will help us here. Although normally a Barthomeloi would not join a magus as humble as you, I will make an exception, such as showing magecraft to the common masses, because of the urgency of the situation. Does anyone have any objections?"

Hearing that, everyone in the room shrugged, and the man who was talking earlier answered. "Any kind of help is welcome, especially if it's another "magus" like you."

Barthomeloi nodded and approached me. "Then I'd better update you on the situation. As for the others, we can call the strategic assembly to a close." They all nodded, said good night and went home to rest.

As for me, Barthomeloi took me to a house surrounded by several narrow fields. Once inside, we settled in and he started the conversation.

"Welcome to my makeshift workshop, not compared to the one I have in our family mansion, but it was necessary to mount a good defense on the front. Few have had the honor of entering the workshop of a Barthomeloi, so feel lucky." I simply looked at it with an indifferent expression. Less than 24 hours ago I didn't even know his family existed.

The man coughed a little and continued. "Anyway, tell me you already know about this whole mess."

"I know the basic, that the creatures began to invade Britain, and the nobles put on this front to stop them. But I think I know who is behind this. For years, I have been meeting during my journey some dead apostles who claimed to be subjects of a certain Ortenrosse. During my stay on the mainland, I met him, but he used a diversion and escaped me before I could finish him or find out his plans. After that, I decided to go back to Britain, and by chance I visited the city where the refugees and the wounded stop. I was briefed on the front and your situation, and here I am." I left out a lot of information, but this should do it.

The magus was reflecting with one hand resting on his chin. "That old bloodsucker is behind this as I feared. The situation is worse than we thought, he must be up to something very big."

A few moments later, he stopped reflecting and spoke to me again. "Seeing that you already have the general picture of what is going on, I will come straight to the point. Every day, early in the morning, the wall is attacked by various waves of minions and familiars of Ortenrosse. His army is composed of ghouls, vampires, chimeras and some other minor dead apostle. Every few days, the intensity of attacks increases. Although, inexplicably, the casualties so far have been minimal, the number of wounded and cripples is increasing. So far they have only been able to endure thanks to my intervention, and we are in a race against time to survive until more members of my family arrive and we can hunt down their leader. With your help, maybe we can make it."

I nodded and took my time to digest the information. "Is there any additional help we can get besides your family's?"

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid not. The other Lords of the magus association have not taken the situation as seriously as we do, they think their investigation is more important than this imminent threat." For a few moments, his stoic expression became one of disgust and anger, but he quickly recovered. I don't blame him, the behavior of those guys is pretty frustrating.

"As for the locals, according to them, years ago there was a sword stuck in a stone on a hill near here. No one has been able to get it out until now, and it is rumored that whoever took it will lead us to victory. I investigated it, and the sword is certainly a noble phantasm, and I couldn't get it out either. Anyway, don't pay much attention to it. More importantly, could you tell me which magecraft you practice? I know it's an irrational request, but I need to know to rethink the defenses."

Hopefully he won't be disappointed like most magus. "Well, I'm really third rate. Because of my rare origin and element, the only spells I know are projection, structural grasp, reinforcement and alteration. But, you could say I perfected them to the limit." I deliberately left out prana burst , it's one of my best trump cards, so the less people know, the better.

He looked at me with a stunned face. "How are you supposed to kill several dead apostles with just that? Leave it alone, if you don't want to tell me your real craft, just tell me how you can contribute to the defense."

"Although my specialty is swords, I'm also good with bow. Give me an elevated position from where I have a full view of the battlefield and I will provide you with cover fire."

* * *

Like Barthomeloi, early in the morning the watchmen of the wall sounded the alarm horns. Immediately, we all prepared and went to our positions. The archers positioned themselves at the top of the wall, while Barthomeloi and a few men stood in front of the wall door. I was on the roof of the tallest building in town, dressed in my combat suit and with my black bow in my left hand and a sword ready to be fired into my right hand.

The first to arrive were the Ghouls and the vampires. The archers were in charge of decreasing the amount of Ghouls, while I took care of the vampires as these had reflexes close to those of a dead apostle. What managed to reach the wall was massacred by men equipped with previously reinforced armors and weapons, and Barthomeloi, who was in his elegant suit and armed with a mystic code in the form of a whip.

If by any chance any of the dead ever crossed that line of defense, on the other side of the wall there were endless traps set by Adam. Even the position where I stand is set in case an apostle sneaks in and attacks me. The pressure increased over time, we began to suffer some casualties, and I was forced to fire nameless noble phantasms overloaded of prana, so that they would explode on impact and thus wipe out several enemies at once.

"Here come the chimeras!" I heard with my ear reinforced to a man scream.

On the horizon, four abominations appeared, similar to the one I killed in the burning of Rome. The morale of men began to wane in view of this new enemy, the only one who kept up the pace was Barthomeloi. I suppose that until now they had not faced so many chimeras together, and it was mainly the Magus who took care of them. I needed to do something, and fast.

With that in mind, I made a decision. "Trace on!" In my hand appeared a spiral sword, with a golden grip and blue details. This was not the Caladbolg that Eóghan showed me, but a modified version that I made. The original was too big for me to use, so I modified it to make it smaller so I could shoot it with my bow. I called him Caladbolg II, the fake spiral sword.

I loaded it into the bow and pulled the rope, while the sword stretched out and squeezed to take a more aerodynamic shape. I filled it with a lot of prana, and it began to emit a crimson glow. The space around me filled with energy and red lightning.

"_I am the bone of my sword_. Caladbolg!" After reinforcing it with the first line of my aria and shouting its name, I released the rope. The "arrow" was fired in a huge burst of energy that destroyed the part of the roof in front of me. As it flew, the space around it became distorted, creating a pale blue trail around it.

The broken phantasm crossed the battlefield in seconds and pierced the head of one of the abominations. Then, it exploded. Although it was a degraded copy, by overloading it with prana, I was able to reproduce the power to destroy mountains with single blow of the original. The result was a huge explosion that devastated all enemies within its radius, and a large red bubble of prana formed. It was my most powerful projectile, and at the same time the most expensive. I hope I do not have to shoot many more.

Once the smoke and the prana was cleared, only a crater with some remains of the abominations remained. The battlefield was completely silent, the men on the wall looked astonished at the outcome of my attack, and the dead stopped arriving for a few moments. Even Adam had stood with an expression full of surprise and disbelief.

The pause did not last long and Ortenrosse's minions began to arrive again. Even so, those short minutes of rest were valuable, they served us to catch our breath. After seeing me easily rid myself of the abominations, the men regained their hopes and morale rose again.

The battle resumed between war cries, the sounds of metal clashes and inhuman screams, and lasted for a couple of more hours. The soldiers were getting tired, and it was getting harder and harder for them to deal with the ghouls. The magus kept his incredible rhythm, but I noticed that he was already trying harder than before and was already sweating. I was already starting to notice that my circuits were getting pretty hot.

In the distance I saw a couple of blurs that crossed the battlefield at great speed. I reinforced my eyes even more and saw that they looked like a boy and a girl, both dressed in flashy costumes. Both were blond and their eyes were undoubtedly red. For further confirmation, Barthomeloi shouted "Apostles!".

The two apostles ignored the soldiers and began to run between them towards the door. They were both staring at me, no doubt they were sent explicitly to finish me off. One of the two, the boy, was caught by Adam's whip and immediately hit the ground and suffered an electric shock.

The other apostle took advantage of the fact that Adam was busy, and leaning on the head of one of the soldiers she jumped over the wall and hurled himself at me, all this while avoiding all the "arrows" I shot at her.

Quickly, I tilted my body back, avoiding its claws within inches of my face. She landed a few meters behind me, and as she regained her balance, I rose to face her and replaced my bow with Kanshou and Bakuya. The apostle leapt again at me and I found myself stopping and deflecting his claws as I slowly retreated.

This time, she was taking me seriously and she wasn't holding back. Although her combat skills were not the best, she was pressing me quickly to the edge of the roof. In an oversight, she kicked Bakuya out of my right hand, and this one flew back at me. Before I could trace another, the creature attacked me with a cross attack of both claws, so I was forced to reinforce my arms to the maximum and stop them with Kanshou.

We got caught in a struggle, and I was being pushed slowly to fall off the roof. That would be fatal, I couldn't dodge in the middle of the fall. When I already had the heel of my left foot sticking out from the edge of the roof, I heard the sound of a blade spinning behind me.

"Haaaah!" I made one last effort and made a small prana burst to create some distance between the two and I ducked. The sudden increase in force I was applying took her by surprise and got her to take some of it away from me. Bakuya had returned, drawn by the Kanshou in my hands, and passed over my head towards my opponent's neck.

This one was forced to jump backwards to avoid being cut, and to my fortune and her misfortune, it fell right on top of one of the traps that Barthomeloi had prepared. Some prana chains came out of the ground and wrapped around her limbs, leaving her completely immobilized. As much as she tried to wrestle, she couldn't move them a bit. The magecraft of the Barthomeloi family really specialized in killing dead apostles.

I approached her to give her the final blow. "I guess you won't tell me what your master plans."

Hearing my words, she smiled loudly and replied. "Hum, no matter what I tell you, you'll all be dead in a few days."

"Then die with satisfaction." With nothing more to say, I beheaded her with Kanshou and returned to my position.

Looking back at the battlefield, the situation had not changed much, Adam had already taken care of the other dead apostle and we were in a battle of resistance against the overwhelming numbers of the enemy.

A few hours later, already in the afternoon, the dead stopped coming. We were all almost exhausted. The doctors quickly arrived at the wall door and took the wounded to the building that was doing the nursing function.

We would take the rest of the afternoon to eat and replenish our forces for tomorrow, and in the evening we would have another strategic meeting to do the counting of our remaining supplies and combatants.

The situation was worse than I expected. The forces we have faced today were counted in thousands, and this has been so for months. This was not a mere skirmish like the situations I have encountered so far. Whatever Ortenrosse is up to, he must have been planning it for decades or even centuries and gathering his forces up to now.

The night came and we started the meeting. Although there were no fatalities, we had one seriously injured who had to be evacuated, and nine wounded who will have to wait a few days to return. Of the sixty men we had in the first line of defense, they were reduced by a sixth.

From what I was told, this was the first time they faced so many chimeras together and more than one dead apostle at a time. I don't know if it was a coincidence that this happened just when I got to the front, or Ortenrosse already knows I'm here. And seeing as how today's apostles were targeting me, I'm afraid that's the second option. If this goes on like this, we won't last long enough.

he first to ask the question I was waiting for was Adam. "Where did you get such a powerful phantasm noble and why didn't you tell me?"

I shrugged and answered. "I projected it."

His gaze became even more unbelieving. "That's impossible, even the most powerful magus would burn themself trying."

"Technically, I "traced it," a variant of the projection that I created myself. Also, remember I told you that I told you that my origin and element were unusual? Thanks to that I can do it." A half truth, but if I tell him that I have a reality Marble that stores the blueprints of every noble Phantasm I've ever seen and provides me the materials to project them, I may have been sent to a dissection table when this is over.

He looked at me with a suspicious face, but he finally let it go. "Anyway, how many of those can you shoot in a row?"

"Three, four if I force it, but I'll be probably unconscious from prana fatigue. But I have other cheaper weapons that can kill one of those chimeras in one blow."

"All right, I'll leave it to you. Meanwhile, in view of what happened today, I will have to increase the number of traps in your position."

"That would be helpful, I could deal with one, but two would be a problem."

Then, the man who was assigned as commander of the troops at the front spoke .

"All that is well, but have you received any news about the reinforcements?"

Adam denied with his head. "No, no message has yet reached me through my familiars."

At that time, the morale of those present declined. We couldn't stay in that state of mind or tomorrow would be a complete disaster. I stepped forward and cleared my throat so that everyone would listen to me.

"Gentlemen, the situation is really discouraging. The casualties are increasing more and more, and our enemy is getting stronger. But, I promise you, as long as I'm here, I'm not gonna let anyone die in front of me. We're gonna get through this, and we're gonna get home safe and sound!" I don't know if it was the speech itself, my feat today on the battlefield, or the sheer determination I was showing at the time, but little by little, they all began to raise their heads and lose their looks of resignation.

"Now you are talking!" After someone said that, everyone started screaming and raising their fist excited. When the atmosphere calmed down, Adam clapped for attention.

"That was a good speech, but we'd better go to sleep to regain strength. Tomorrow will be another long day." We all nodded and went to rest.

* * *

The situation worsened further in the following days, with more and more abominations and dead apostles arriving. I was forced to shoot two Caladbolgs a day and several Redeemers, and I reached a point where my magical reserves did not fully recover during the night and I had to receive a prana transfusion through Barthomeloi's blood.

Our numbers were reduced to a third of what they were when I arrived, so we had to assign all the archers to the front and I took care of covering their end. Barthomeloi had to double the number of traps for dead apostles in my position, and he also placed some on the door. As a result, his vast reserves of prana were also beginning to run out.

Supplies were running out, tiredness and stress began to accumulate, and morale was on the ground. If my calculations don't fail, at most we can endure one more day. But, worst of all, Barthomeloi still hasn't received any sign of any family members. Either they've abandoned him, which I doubt since he's their heir, or Ortenrosse is distracting them with more dead apostles.

The guy really had it all figured out. Should I have killed him when I had the chance? No, I will never regret saving those lives at the cost of letting him escape. I don't even know why I'm considering this, maybe the stress and tiredness are starting to affect me.

I was walking through the streets of the city of Roan. The sunrise has not yet begun, so there is still time until the enemy attacks. I came to the street where the infirmary was, and the sight that received me was hopeless. The wounded accumulated to such an extent that they did not fit in the building, so there were some in the middle of the street lying on stretchers.

All these days, not a single person died. Enemy forces always focused on wounding and maiming our soldiers, but they never delivered the final blow. It was too weird to be a coincidence, the only thing I can think of, is that bastard is playing us. If they had attacked with such intensity from the beginning, they would have razed the city, and practically all of Britain before I arrived.

You could say, we need a miracle to get out of this. I couldn't just go and try to get Ortenrosse and his lackeys into Unlimited Blade Works, even with an unlimited number of swords at my disposal, I don't think I can take on so many dead apostles at once.

So I decided to hold on to the last remaining hope, the sword in the stone that was near here.

The trip to the hill lasted only a few minutes, but right now the sun was coming up on the horizon, so I had to hurry. As Adam said, at the top of the hill I found a sword stuck in a stone. This was of a standard appearance, without any ornament, with a simple golden guard and slightly curved upwards, and its blade had a slightly higher than average length.

When I got close and took a look at it with structural analysis, I started sweating. Its name was Merodach, the foundation of the sacred right to choose the king, and certainly, it was the most powerful noble phantasm I have ever seen throughout my life. The problem was that, as its description suggests, this sword can only be used by someone who qualifies to be the king. That explains why no one has been able to get it out of the stone, but I doubt I'm anyone who can be considered king. Hell, I don't even know about politics here in Britain.

I found myself debating whether I should try to use a traced copy, when I heard the horns announcing the enemy attack. I got even more nervous, and by my mind they began to pass on all the choices I had, which were very few.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm down. This was not the time to hesitate. I filled myself with resolution and put my right hand on the hilt of the sword. I didn't lose anything to try, if I failed, then I'd have to improvise like I always do.

I took a breath and pulled with all my might.

* * *

Barthomeloi was at one of the lookout posts on the wall, and it could be said that, for once in his life, he felt fear. What he saw on the other side of the plain was not just Ghouls and vampires accompanied by some chimera, but something much worse. On the horizon you could see several lines of chimeras, and behind these, twelve dead apostles, all in their classic luxurious black costume. Amidst these, you could see Ortenrosse with his arms on his back and a smile from ear to ear.

"We're finished." That's all he could say. There was no way they could face such an army, even if his family miraculously arrived at those times. The place plunged into an uncomfortable silence, as if it were calm before the storm. All those present were dismayed, resigned to his impending death, they had lost all hope.

Then, my trusting words echoed all over the place. "Don't fear, I promised that no one would die while I was here, and I intend to keep that promise."

Barthomeloi was the only one who spoke. "Hang it up, no matter how many noble phantasms you can project, you can't-" But he was speechless to see me.

All the soldiers were looking at me with their mouths and eyes wide open, or rather, looking at what was in my hands. I was walking towards the wall door with an expression of total determination and Merodach in my hand. I don't know how I got her out, but I didn't have time to wrap my head around it. The sword imbibed me with its power, causing my physical abilities to rise above the level I can reach with the reinforcement, but a close fight was not what I had in mind.

The doors of the wall opened and I crossed them to stand in front of them. Those present saw me standing there, with my red mantle blowing through the wind, and my back totally straight and upright. It gave the feeling that that back could hold all the weight of the world.

I took a few moments to evaluate the situation. Looking at the picture, I can understand that even Barthomeloi would have given up. The eyes of Ortenrosse and mine met for a few moments, and in that instant, we both knew. This ends here and now.

I spread my legs, grabbed Merodach's hilt with both hands and lifted it above my head, with the blade pointing at the sky. I poured all my prana into the sword, and it began to emit a glow of golden light.

Ortenrosse gave the order to his army to charge against me immediately, but it was too late, even with his speed could not cross the battlefield in time to stop me.

Once Merodach was already loaded with most of my prana, I stepped forward with my left foot and prepared to use it.

"Exterminate the impure, MERODACH!" I shouted its name out loud and swung the sword forward with all my might. Out of the sword came a beam of light that covered the entire battlefield and burned everything in its path. Within seconds, Ortenrosse's army was annihilated, such was the power of the original model of all the swords of election.

My legs trembled and I had to use Merodach as a support to not fall to my knees. My magic circuits are burning like hell right now. But I can not fall unconscious, I need to confirm the death of the dead apostle.

As I feared, I saw a figure among the remains of the charred corpses. It was Ortenrosse, who had survived using his minions as shields of flesh. However, the beam of light still struck him. His body was full of hideous burns, and he was having a hard time regenerating. You could say he had practically one foot in the grave.

I can't let him get away, if I do, he'll rearrange another nonsense like this. I checked my remaining prana reserves, I didn't have much left, but it was enough for what I had planned.

"Trace on!" I let go of Merodach and began to run to the apostle as I traced Kanshou and Bakuya. When I was about ten meters from him, I crossed both arms and began to recite the poem of the married swords to synchronize the maneuver well.

"_Spirit and technique, flawless and firm._"

I threw the first pair of Kanshou and Bakuya pointing at Ortenrosse's neck from the sides. This one, in his partially crippled state, had no choice but to deflect them with what was left of his claws to pass by. I traced the second pair of married swords and crossed the remaining distance between us.

"_Our strength rips the mountains."_

I threw a swing with Kanshou pointing at his left shoulder. It was not very fast because I had no prana left to use reinforcement. Even in his pitiful state, it should have been no challenge for him to stop it. But right then, he had to dodge a surprise attack from behind. Pulling out his absurd reflexes, he tilted his body to the right to barely avoid the first pair Bakuya I threw, while swinging his right claw in an ascending cut and breaking Kanshou.

"_Our swords split the water."_

Without losing pace, I threw another swing with Bakuya, this time pointing to the right side of his torso. Again, another surprise attack came from his back on the opposite side of the previous one. With a desperate downward cut with his left claw he broke the sword in my right hand, and tried to tilt his body to the right. But this time, his body in ruins could not move as fast as his mind commanded, so the Kanshou of the first pair cut off his left shoulder, causing his arm to hang flaccid.

"_Our names reach the imperial villa."_

Truly he was a monster, he was able to come out of four attacks almost simultaneously from four different angles with only one arm disabled. But that was already within my plans. His position and balance were completely ruined, giving me the final opening I needed. I traced the third and final pair of married swords and threw a cross cut with both blades pointing at his unprotected chest.

"_The two of us cannot hold the heavens together!"_

Both swords cut off his charred body, and destroyed his internal organs. This was the technique I created exclusively to deal with enemies with monstrous reflexes, and the culmination of all my work with Kanshou and Bakuya, Triple-Linked Crane Wings.

Ortenross fell back spitting out large amounts of blood, landing on the ground on his back. On the other hand, my legs finally failed and I fell to my knees as I struggled to catch my breath. My consciousness was fading when I heard the apostle say his last words.

"My defeat... changes nothing. You're late... cof, I've fed it... with enough... negative emotions."

After saying those cryptic words, his body vanished into specks of light, and I fainted.

* * *

I woke up still a little dazed. I inspected my surroundings and realized that I was in Barthomeloi's workshop lying on the ground. As there were no windows, I don't know the current time. Then I heard a voice beside me.

"At last you wake up, I thought you were going to stay like this forever." The voice came from Adam, who was sitting with his hands crossed in a corner of the room.

After clearing myself a little I asked him. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"About twelve hours, I had to have you drink some of my blood to stabilize your condition. You were about to die of prana fatigue, but with all the hours of rest you've had, you should be fine."

I nodded. "I guess I should thank you for saving me."

"It was the least I could do for the person who saved us. It pains me to admit it, but I doubt that even if the other members of my family had arrived we would have been able to face such an army." He paused, the look he was giving me was of... respect? I'm not sure, his expression is too stoic to be able to decipher.

"But I must say I'm curious, how did you manage to pull the sword out of the stone?"

"I still don't know how I qualified to be its wielder, I just tried to pull it out."

"What do you mean you qualified to be his wielder?"

"Well, it's supposed to be a sword that chooses the king." Upon hearing me his eyes opened slightly, but he was not as surprised as I espected.

"That explains why the nobles were talking about something about making you king."

Now it was my turn to open my eyes wide, and luckily I wasn't drinking something, because I would have probably spit it out.

"What!? Why do they want to make someone like me king? I don't even know about politics."

"With your motivational speeches, I would say that you have some aptitude, but I'm not going to get involved in those matters. I have enough with the magus' association."

I sighed and put a hand on my face. "Anyway, did something important happen while I was out?"

"No, people right now are celebrating our victory with the few supplies we have left. Tomorrow, preparations will begin to publicize our victory on the front lines and repopulate the devastated areas. It will take time, but things will soon return to normal."

That made me relax a bit. I guess I'll have to "disappear from the scene" again, so I don't get crowned. That would be very problematic, apart from the fact that I don't know anything about being a king, I couldn't keep traveling to save people. And I don't want to have to deal with something like the rotten Senate of Rome either, that would give me a lot of headaches.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Barthomeloi's sudden movement. He rose from his armchair at a stroke and tightened completely. His brow was furrowed and drops of sweat were beginning to form on his forehead, as he whispered some words that I could not hear properly.

"Something wrong?" I asked in alarm.

He turned to look at me with the most serious expression he had ever seen in him. "Something is approaching here at great speed, something very powerful." After he said that, he took his mystic code and ran out of the room.

"Wait!" Seeing as my words were completely ignored, I had no choice but to go after him. Luckily I was already recovered and I had no trouble following him.

As I left the workshop I realized it was night. We were arriving at the gates of the wall, when these suddenly exploded, literally. Once the dust and debris cleared, we saw there a creature that could only be described as a beast. It looked like a huge white wolf with a big mane on his neck and monstrous claws on each of its legs. Its eyeballs were purple while its retinas were blue, and the end of its tail was a combination of these colors and they waved unnaturally.

But the scariest thing was not its appearance. Although my ability to feel the prana of other beings was not the best, I could clearly feel the immense power that it exuded. Compared to this being, Ortenrosse looked weak. Apart from that, it also gave off an aura of pure malevolence, it almost seemed that negative emotions overflowed the being.

Wait, negative emotions. Can't it be, is this what Ortenrosse meant when he said that he fed it with enough negative emotions? Was this his plan from the beginning?

I had no more time to think. The beast gave a huge roar that made the foundations of the houses tremble and charged toward us.

* * *

**And that's all for now. Yes, although I said cliffhangers were painful, this was necessary. Ortenrosse is out of the game, and now the true Ending Boss has appeared. I said the final fight was gonna be all high, but I never said it was against Orterrose. I don't know if anyone expected that Primate Murder was Ortenrosse's plan, so I hope I surprised you. I planned for the final enemy to be beast IV from the beginning, and when I set out to investigate it, I found a good legal vacuum to exploit.**

**The Cath Palug is supposed to have become Merlin's familiar, and after spending time at Avalon, it depends on the timeline whether or not he becomes the Primate Murder. But until then, it is not known where he was or what he was doing. In short, in the timeline of this history, centuries before the current events Ortenrosse met with the Cath Palug and discovered what it could become. After this he began to feed it with the negative emotions of humans, in order to obtain the ultimate weapon to eradicate humanity.**

**Moving on, let's talk about the chapter itself. As you know, the entire chapter is inspired by the Absolute Demonic Front: Babylon. A war was where more negative emotions could get Ortenrosse, so seeing that Finn was a real threat to his plans, he decided to accelerate them. That's why he left the soldiers alive at the front.**

**As for Merodach, its appearance may be a bit out of the way, but that usually happens with most weapons in myths. No one knows how Gram came to the branch of the tree. Why did I choose this sword? I've barely seen it used on other fanfics, and it had the power to take out the ancestor. According to my estimates of its description, it must be rank A or A+. I don't think it goes without saying that the facts in this chapter were what gave Finn the nickname King of Fakers.**

**The location is a clear reference to the legend of King Arthur. Although it will not have much influence in the future, it will only make it so that when Merlin says that whoever pulls Caliburn off the stone will be the King of Great Britain and leads them to beat the Saxons, his words will have even more credibility.**

**Finally, being a plot of dead apostles, the appearance of the Barthomeloi family was inevitable, and as the only member of that family that officially exists will be born in a few centuries, I took a few liberties.**

**As always, I would like to hear your views on the story in the Reviews, that would help me a lot.**

**With this I say goodbye for now, until we meet again people.**


	7. Epilogue: Sight of the end

**See you again people, here I bring you the conclusion of this story. As you may have seen, this chapter is not very long, but keep in mind that it is mostly the final fight. Although I tried to do it as long as I could, it was impossible to drag out a fight against something as powerful as the Primate Murder. As you can imagine, Finn will need a miracle to win.**

**But enough of detours, as nobody asked anything in the reviews of the previous chapter, let's go straight to the story. As a reminder, in this fight, it is obligatory to get an Emiya theme in the background.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights over Type-Moon or the Fate franchise.**

* * *

The moment the beast set foot on the other side of the wall, all of Barthomeloi's traps were activated. A large number of chains of prana came out of the ground and wrapped around its legs, its surroundings filled with explosions and several prana projectiles were fired in its direction from the walls of the wall.

When the dust cleared, I heard a gasp coming from the magus beside me. The monster was completely intact, and the chains that held it were breaking as if they were made of glass. It was shocking to see how the magecraft of the Barthomeloi family, which was made expressly to hunt dead apostles, was incapable of making a scratch.

Adam was taken out of his stupor by feeling another malevolent aura at his side. My first reaction to seeing the beast charge towards us was to trace Redeemer and my bow. At this time it was already overloaded with prana and ready to be shot.

"Redeemer!" The cursed sword quickly crossed the distance between us, exploding as it hit his head. It was almost impossible for this being to emerge unharmed from a noble phantasm with such high anti-monster property, especially because of its clear malign alignment.

This time it was my turn to gasp. Although it had been damaged and the curse was affecting it, its regeneration was much faster than this. Any of the phantasmal species that I have encountered during my life had managed to survive a direct impact of a broken Redeemer. This beast must be of the highest rank, perhaps at the same level or higher than the dragons.

I swallowed loudly and looked at Adam. He looked back at me, his usual stoic expression was gone and in his place there was one full of nervousness. To make matters worse, the people who had been celebrating the victory were arriving where we were, attracted by the noise of the explosions.

I looked back at the beast. This was about to regenerate completely, and if I did not do something fast, everyone would die. Silently, I made my decision. I took a step forward and turned my head slightly to look at Barthomeloi.

"Adam, I want you to take them from here as far as possible. I'll entertain it."

He looked at me surprised. "Are you crazy! It is impossible for you to last more than a few seconds against that thing, even with that noble phantasm. It's too powerful, all we can do is pray for the counter-force to intervene and eliminate it." I have no idea what this counter-force is, but if we have to pray for it to come, we're really screwed.

"I need you to trust me. There is no time for explanations, but I have a method to stop it for a few minutes. So I ask you one more time, evacuate all the civilians while I distract it."

He looked into my eyes full of determination, and finally gave in. "Fine. But you must know, I do not think I can get very far. Besides, you will surely die."

"I do not mind dying if that means everyone is saved."

He just nodded and turned around. "It has been an honor to fight by your side. Rejoice, because no other third-rate magus will ever hear those words of a Barthomeloi. I wish you luck." With those last words he ran towards the soldiers.

I turned to face the beast once more, raised my right arm, pointing forward with an open hand. I grabbed the joint of my right arm with my left hand to hold it, and began to recite my aria.

"_I am the bone of my sword."_

"_Steel is my body and fire is my blood."_

"_I have created over a thousand blades."_

The concentration of prana around me soared, and the ground at my feet began to shine. By this point, the beast was completely regenerated and was breaking the last chains that bound it.

"_Unaware o loss,"_

"_Nor aware of gain."_

The beast broke free of the chains and began charging against me. Luckily, the remaining traps slowed him down long enough to finish singing.

"_Withstood pain to create weapons, chasing an ever distant dream."_

"_I have no regrets. This is the path I chose."_

The monster had already crossed the distance, and its right claw was coming towards my head at an overwhelming speed. But before it impacted and destroyed my head, I shouted the last line of my aria.

"_My whole life was... UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS!"_

A ring of fire formed on my feet and shot outward, enveloping and blinding me and the creature. When I opened my eyes again, I was at the top of the hill of swords, while the beast was at the foot of it. My inner world had not changed much since I began to dream about it, it was still a barren hill in an eternal sunset, with swords stabed to the ground as far as the eye could see.

The beast was in a state of confusion because of the sudden change of place. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I gave the mental order and thousands of swords shot out in their direction from where they were nailed. The air filled with clangs and metal clashes. As expected, most of the swords broke or bounced when making contact with the skin of my enemy. Only weapons of the highest caliber could make a scratch, and it quickly disappeared as if it had never been in the first place.

I have no choice but to go with the heavy weaponry from the beginning. Without further ado, I took the hilt of Merodach with my right hand and Durandal's with my left hand. These two were, without a doubt, the most powerful swords at my disposal. I was imbued with the power of both, I reinforceded myself to the limits and jumped towards him.

By the time the iron mist around the beast cleared, I was already only a couple of meters above, making a powerful downward swing with both swords. My opponent covered himself with its huge claw and was hit head-on. The force of the impact caused the ground at its feet to crack, but it practically did not flinch.

With practically no effort, it repelled me by moving its claw to one side and I flew several meters into the air. The creature jumped at an incredible speed for a being of its size and tried to impale me with its left claw. I was only saved by the reflexes that I developed over countless battles. I turned my body in mid-air to stay with my head down and took the momentum to swing Merodach to my right.

"Haaaaah!" The moment I hit his claw with my sword I casted a prana burst, managing to deflect it and causing the monster to pass by. I turned again to fall on my feet and when I landed I rolled forward to lessen the impulse of the fall. The beast landed several past me, and I was already running towards it.

I passed under a cut from its left claw and positioned myself on its side. I poured prana on both swords so that they were wrapped with light and I began to make cuts on its unprotected side while circling around it. The damage caused was considerable, but the wounds were regenerating too quickly. This strategy was not working, so I'll have to think another one.

The beast gave a roar, more than pain, of annoyance. If my ears had not been reinforced, my eardrums would probably have exploded. Suddenly, the ground at its feet became a crater, and disappeared from my sight. To inexperienced eyes, it would have seemed that the creature simply vanished. Even with my trained and reinforced senses, I could only see a white blur that went to my back.

"Haaaaaah!" With a quick movement of heels, I turned to face him again, while he poured more prana in Durandal and made a backward swing. When I finished the turn, I saw its right claw coming pointing at my chest. I hit the side of its claw with Durandal as I threw another prana burst, again deflecting its attack to the side. The clash caused an enormous shock wave that even ripped some swords from the ground.

Then the beast began to throw multiple thrusts with its claws at an overwhelming speed, it seemed a real storm of attacks. I started to desperately parry and deflect them with both swords, throwing prana bursts left and right to keep up. I could not avoid all the attacks, but I could avoid those that went to vital points. My armor and cloak were perforated as if they were made of glass and I began to bleed in several places. At our feet a crater was formed by all the strong impacts that we caused, and all the swords that were around us were ripped.

At this rate, I wasn't going to last long, my magic reserves were running out quickly. However, the wounds were not a problem as my reality marble manifested swords inside my body that were sewn and closed.

In the next attack destined for my chest, instead of deflecting it, I crossed both swords in front of me and received the blow from the front. This helped me to go back several meters, so I could gain some distance. I already had a plan in mind what I needed to put together to start executing it.

The beast wasted no time and rushed back to me immediately. I grabbed Durandal in reverse grip and began to overload it with prana.

"Durandal break!" When the beast was a few feet away from me, I shouted the name of the sword and stabed it to the ground. Durandal itself was not a weapon capable of firing a disintegrating beam of light like Merodach, nor could it be converted into a Broken Phantasm. But things changed when you released one of its miracles. One would never think such a thing if it were the original, after all, its main characteristic, to be unbreakable, was based on these miracles, but being a copy, I could do it without thinking twice.

As a result, the ground cracked and a wave of light was fired at the feet of the beast, causing it to lose balance and become destabilized. Without giving it time to recover, I went ahead with my plan. I released Durandal and summoned in my left hand a red sword in the form of a flame, the sword that Nero Claudius wielded. It was not a powerful noble phantasm, but I needed it for its primary function. Unlike Durandal or Merodach, instead of producing light, it produced fire.

I overloaded it with prana and swung it on a wide swing in front of me, setting everything on fire. My intention with this attack was not to try to burn it, but to obstruct its vision. I let go of Nero's sword and grabbed Merodach with both hands, taking a stand to throw a forward thrust from my right side.

I poured into the noble phantasm much of my remaining prana reserves and threw myself forward through the flames. The beast was leaning only on its hind legs because of the two previous attacks, and had its chest exposed. He didn't have time to react when I went through the flames and stabbed Merodach in the chest.

"Merodach!" I shouted its name and it fired its beam of light, completely enveloping the creature and burning it both on the outside and inside. My legs trembled and I had to use Merodach as crutch again. The sweat was dripping all over my body and mingling with the blood coming out of my wounds as I struggled to catch my breath. Did I get it? Did I finish it? I couldn't confirm it because of all the fire and smoke around me.

To my horror, I heard some grunts in front of me. Then I heard a huge roar that cleared the smoke and flames, revealing the monster.

"It can't... be." I said unbelieving. The beast had managed to regenerate his burned body inside and out. Even though I wasn't in full condition, I was on my last legs. There's no way I can keep fighting. The beast threw a stab with its right claw, so that it remained perpendicular to the ground.

I tried to deflect it with Merodach, but I just got that instead of piercing my heart, the attack landed lower. Even the copy of Merodach in my hands finally broke under its enormous strength.

"Gaaaghhh!" I flew through the air with a huge hole in the left side of my abdomen, leaving a huge trail of blood, and landed again on top of the hill of swords. "Guh!" I spit all the blood down my throat so I wouldn't drown and lay there with no strength, watching as the Unlimited Blade Works began to collapse.

I'd like to think the civilians have already been evacuated, but the fight lasted only a few minutes. It is impossible that Adam has had time to escape with everyone, and yet, with such power, it will destroy what is left of Britain and slaughter everyone. Is this how it ends? Is this how I am going to die, without having been able to save anyone? Did this whole journey make no sense?

In those bitter moments, I began to remember my life. That hell in which I was born, how I was saved by Marcus, his smile, and finally, that full moon night that marked a before and after in my life. Those convincing words I said to Marcus. "_I want to dedicate my life to helping and saving people, I want to be a hero so that hell can't happen again. I want to pursue my dream of saving them all._"

Until now, even if people called me a hero, I never considered myself one, not until I could have saved them all. But, you could say, that memory revived a flame inside me. I'm not gonna let that old bloodsucker get away with it. Because the swords of my inner world managed to close the hole in my abdomen, I still have a few minutes to live before I bleed out.

Though my body is at its last, my spirit has not yet given up. Still, there's no sword in my world that can kill that thing. But that wasn't my original goal, what I always wanted from the start was to save them all. From what I understand, Ortenrosse fed it with negative emotions until it became that, so I just have to extract or purify all those negative emotions to make it go back to the way it was.

As I searched for a weapon in my mind that could do that, my face was illuminated by some kind of light. I turned my head to the side, and saw a certain blade shining. It was that mysterious sword that I saw even the first few times I dreamed of my inner world. I've never been able to trace it or use it in combat, and I've never seen it react that way. It always intrigued me, as I could not read any special features in it, but the feeling of warmth that it was transmitting somehow always comforted me.

I woke up half tripping over my last forces. Luckily, the beast left me for dead and it was just waiting for the reality marble to collapse. I took the hilt of the sword, and then I understood. More than a sword, it was a conceptual weapon, the crystallization of all my ideals and carried the dreams and hopes of all the people I saved my entire life. As such, this sword is not meant to kill, but to save.

I pulled it out of the ground before my world collapsed, and I started slowly walking towards the beast. By the time I got close, we were back in the city of Roan. I was barely standing, and that was because at the moment my body was practically made of swords.

"Hey you, your... opponent ugh... is still here." I got his attention as I could. The beast turned to me with what seemed an expression of surprise and dismay. I poured the little prana I had left on the sword, after all, my death was already a fact, I didn't have to worry about keeping anything. Still, it was enough for the sword to start emitting light. Unlike Merodach, this light was not aggressive and burned everything it touched, but was warm and comforting.

"ROOOAAAR!" The beast gave one last roar and lunged once more at me with the intention of taking me down once and for all.

"HAAAAAH!" And I shouted and swung the sword forward with one last effort. Out of this came a beam of light that enveloped the beast and began to purify it. The light burst into a huge pillar that rised to the sky and I lost sight of the beast.

At that moment, I collapsed and fell backwards. I stared at the night sky as my life slowly faded. Now I see, it was the same beautiful sky with a full moon of that night. The pillar of light dissolved, and little specks of light started falling all over the city.

"I got it... I saved... them all. Did I become... a hero to you... Marcus?"

With those last words, the man who was known as King of Fakers died with a smile on his face, the same smile that drove him to follow his ideals to the end.

* * *

The soldiers at the front and Adam returned to Roan when they saw that pillar of light, to see Finn's lifeless body and that the beast had disappeared. That man had succeeded again, performed a miracle again and saved them from an unstoppable threat.

He was buried on the hill from where he drew the sword from the stone, and the nobles ordered to build a monument in his honor in the center of the city. It was a statue of him dressed in his characteristic combat suit, and wielding Merodach. His mantle was waving, as when he confronted that army, and his face reflected the beautiful smile he had in his last moments.

Few people will remember his name, but he will always be remembered as the King of Fakers, the person who showed that, no matter what talent or power, if one strives and gives everything to the end, he can achieve even the impossible.

As for the "Moonlit World", Merodach was lost, and centuries later, it would return from Merlin's hand with the name of Caliburn, to choose one more time the king who would lead Britain to victory. Adam Barthomeloi pulled the strings to put Finn's body under the protection of his family. This deterred any Magus who tried to desecrate his body, no one in his right mind would put himself on the wrong side of one of the most influential families of the Magus association.

By chance of fate, the beast, which had returned to its original form, came to the reverse side of the world. Specifically, to a green meadow with a huge tower in its center, the Garden of Avalon, where it would eventually meet a certain Magus of the flowers.

Because of the miracle that created Finn's sword, to save them all including his enemy, in this garden, The Forever-Sealed Utopi, appeared an image of this as commemoration for achieving an unachievable utopia.

Finally, in the inner world of Finn, around this nameless sword grew green grass, similar to that of the Garden of Avalon.

* * *

Author's note:_ I warn you that if you want to keep the "good" ending, skip the next part. You must already imagine what it is, but anyway, what will happen next will be what you could say a "bad" ending depends on how you see it, so you're free to skip it or stay with whoever you want. But for the following stories I will use the "bad" for reasons I explain in the final note I always leave._

Or that would have been the end of me if it wasn't for the intervention of a certain collective entity. In my last moments, I had a hallucination where I saw Marcus approaching me, but from the way he looked at me and talked, I realized that this being was not my father.

She presented herself as the World or Alaya, the collective unconsciousness of mankind, and offered me a pact. She would grant me any desire, like saving me from my impending death, in exchange for serving her after death. It was quite tempting, but in my state of mind on the brink of death, I asked the being a question.

"Can I keep saving people if I serve you?

Then she replied. "Of course, if you serve me, you will fight to prevent mankind from becoming extinct."

Then I made my last decision without much thought and answered your proposal. "I accept."

"The pact is now sealed, just tell me your wish and it will be fulfilled."

"My only desire is to continue to pursue my ideals, even after I die."

Unknowingly, that desire that I asked for in my state of little lucidity saved me from eternal condemnation of destroying my ideals with my own hands. Alaya wasn't very happy, but she had to fulfill my wish. As a result, I was not sent on cleansing missions, but was only sent to treat beings who threatened humanity as Primate Murder.

Anyway, it was still an eternity of servitude, and I eventually forgot even my name. I became a nameless entity, registered on the Throne of Heroes as King of Fakers, and the embodiment of the ideals of that man who managed to save everyone.

* * *

**And so the legend of King of Fakers concludes, what did you think? You could see it coming that it was going to save everyone, it's in the title and the description of the story. Anyway, there's a lot to talk about about the chapter and the character, so I'll get right to the point. I will leave at the end the Servant file of King of Fakers, as well as the noble Phantasm chip of the conceptual weapon I created for this one.**

**Let's talk about the differences between this character I created and EMIYA. First, as you can imagine, King of Fakers will be more powerful for several reasons. This one lived in a time where humans were stronger, and the magecraft is still in full swing, so he has more magical and higher quality magical circuits. He practiced his magecraft from a young age, and he always faced supernatural threats much more powerful than he. There is also the prana burst, but the power difference will not be exaggerated either. Let's go to the most important thing, the difference of personalities and background. As you have seen in what I called the "bad" ending, the pact you made with Alaya does not have the same implications, therefore, King of Fakers will not end up broken and discard his ideals, He'll just be tired of having to work for Alaya for eternity. Therefore, his reality marble will remain the same. Although, that he did not cast aside his ideals does not take away the fact that he realized that the path he followed to fulfill them was not the most appropriate.**

**Another difference is that Finn did not seek to become a hero of justice. To him, becoming a hero meant saving them all. That is why we do not have the internal debate we see in UBW that being an ally of justice means having to sacrifice a few to save many. He adopted this method because he had no choice, and he never liked it. But, in his mind, he doesn't think that saving them all is impossible.**

**Also, Finn had no loved ones or companions other than his father, so he did not have the sense of conscience EMIYA had by abandoning them to follow his ideal, nor was he betrayed. Although anyway, if it wasn't for his reality marble collapsed, King of Fakers would literally have died alone on top of a hill of swords, so in that regard the two had a similar ending.**

**And finally, the biggest differences. First of all, as you could see in the prologue, Finn chose to follow his ideals by his own decision, not inherit them from his father. This is reflected in the penultimate line of his aria. And secondly, he did manage to save them all, although it was very circumstantial. But that's the main reason King of Fakers will never throw away his ideals.**

**Surely you're wondering why I made him become Counter Guardian? It was inevitable that Alaya would look at him, a human with the power to neutralize Primate Murder is not seen in every timeline. But, unlike EMIYA who had to make a wish to the World to prevent the nuclear catastrophe, King of Fakers did not need it to defeat Beast IV. That caused him to be free to want what he wanted, and unlike Arturia Pendragon, he had no regrets about dying, and since they were practically his reason for living, he wished he could continue to pursue his ideals after death. And being a Counter Guardian, it's easier to send him to a crossover and not have to resort to "Zelretch did it."**

**In conclusion, his stance on his ideals is very similar to that of UBW's Shirou, he still believes in them but thinks that the path he followed to reach them was not the best. Therefore, he does not repent of his actions as he does EMIYA, well he regrets to make a pact with Alaya but that is different. He's not bitter like Archer and he's not sarcastic, but he still has some of his sense of humor. His experience with the opposite sex is virtually nil, and most crucially, he's not a master chef, so he's not going to conquer any girl with his food. Seriously, the meme of Shirou cook is already a little burned, even has an anime. Its aria is practically the same as UBW Shirou, changing the fifth and sixth line to reflect the slight differences between its views.**

**Now it's time to talk about the conceptual weapon I gave him. Although it looks like a stoned, I tried to stick as close as I could to the laws of Nasuverse. The concept itself is based on the very concept of Excalibur. It was created by Finn's Unlimited Blade Works, and is the crystallization of its ideals and carries all the dreams and hopes of all the people it saved throughout its life. Doesn't this sound familiar? Yes, it's practically the same description of Excalibur, only this one was created by the world, and carries the hopes and dreams of all the warriors of the past, present and future. As you can see, the method by which both swords were created is the same, but as the "ingredients" differ, they gave rise to different concepts, while one seeks to save, the other seeks victory. Besides, Excalibur is a divine construction, whereas this sword is not.**

**Its appearance is the same as that of Excalibur removing the ornaments of the handle and the fae inscriptions. As for its name, well, I suck at naming, so since its wielder is a nameless entity, I baptized her as _the nameless sword of promised salvation_. I think that suits it quite well, and a nameless noble phantasm is not something new either, remember that the sword of rupture is also a nameless sword, Ea is a name Gilgamesh gave it but yelling it won't make the sword unleash its true power. In fact, this sword would also be the opposite pole of Ea, while one has the power to save them all, the other has the power to destroy all creation.**

**Even the title of this story is a reference to _The Epic of Gilgamesh, surpassing them all_. Heh, I don't think even Captain America saw that one.**

**Finally, here are the stats sheets.**

* * *

**Servant class: Archer**

**Identidad: King of Fakers (nameless)**

**Type: Heroic spirit, Counter Guardian, Hero**

**Source: King of Fakers, saving them all**

**Region: Great Britain**

**Alignment: lawful good**

**Hidden Atribute: Human**

**Armaments: The armor and cloack of the Edevane family.**

**Master: ? (Surely you imagine, obviously he will go to a Holy Grail War)**

**Parameter:**

**Strength: C+**

**Endurance: B-**

**Agility: B**

**Mana: B++**

**Luck: E (Yes, the E rank luck meme couldn't miss, you have to have bad luck so in the end, after achieving your dream, you make a pact with Alaya)**

**Class skills:**

**Independent action: B**

**Magical Resistance: C (B with his red cloack)**

**Personal Skills:**

**Clairvoyance: C**

**Eye of the Mind: A+**

**Magecraft: C+ (It is higher than that of EMIYA because the prana burst, but he is equally inept in magecraft)**

**Proyection: A++ (If it were not higher than EMIYA's, then the King of Fakers title would be meaningless. Anyway, he still can't trace divine constructions, but because there's a sword in his inner world very much like Excalibur, the replica that King of Fakers can make is closer to the original than EMIYA's)**

**Prana Burst: C**

**Noble Phantasms:**

**Unlimited Blade Works: E-EX**

**Nameless sword of promised salvation: EX (It lies within the Unlimited Blade Works, that's why it has that rank)**

* * *

**Noble phantasm: Nameless sword of promised salvation**

**Owner: King of Fakers**

**Rank: Ex**

**Type: ? (I honestly don't know what to put)**

**Range: 999 (The sword aims to save them all)**

**Decription: A nameless sword forged by the inner world of King of Fakers. It is the crystallization of all his ideals and carries all the dreams and hopes of all the people he saved during his life. It is also the ultimate conceptual weapon for saving, having the power to achieve the unattainable utopia of saving everyone. Its power can only be used for this purpose, if its wielder intends to kill his enemy, this weapon will become an ordinary sword. This weapon is only capable of killing the enemy, if it really is the only and last option. Because it could defeat one of the beasts of calamity, it posses an attribute that makes it more effective against the evils of mankind.**

* * *

**Before you come at me with rakes and torches for giving him an EX rank, let me explain. It has that rank because it is literally the ultimate weapon for its purpose. That does not mean that it can split worlds like Ea. It is the same case as with Mystic Eyes of Dead Perception, they have an EX rank because they can detect the failures of ALL existence, they are the best in their niche. What I mean is, you're not gonna see King of Fakers firing an anti-fortress beam and destroying armies with this sword, so he's already got Merodach.**

**Wow, that's been a long time, but we're almost done. If you've come this far, I really appreciate you reading this story, and if anyone wants to use the character for their own fic, you're free to do it, I'll just ask you to mention where it came from.**

**But, as I said, this is the end of the beginning. I may be a little late, but I intend to write crossovers with this character. And the first stop, of course, is going to be the Fifth Holy Grail War. For some reason I did not have any romance during his life, so as not to have the same problem that arises when sending a Shirou to another world, that he is already in love with one of the heroines.**

**With this I say goodbye, until next time.**


End file.
